MDIParent form Launch third party software

Question

I have a MDI Application with a MDIParent form and two Child forms called form1 and form2. What I need to do is.
 Launch the third party software from MDIparent form and if it  already open then not to open again.

Thanks,

BVN

Answer 1

You could launch the application by using the process.start method.

To see if the application is running already, you could enumerate through all the running processes using the Process.GetProcesses().

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Answer 2

Hi

Why do you not create your own class then you can start it from everywhere for instance like this

Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim stnr As New StartNonRunningProcess()
        stnr.StartNonRunningProcess("IExplore")
    End Sub
End Class


Friend Class StartNonRunningProcess
    Public Sub StartNonRunningProcess(ByVal Application As String)
        Dim localByName As Process() = Process.GetProcessesByName(Application)
        For Each pRunning As Process In localByName
            If pRunning.HasExited = False Then Return
        Next
        If localByName Is Nothing Then
            Process.Start(Application)
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

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Success
Cor

Answer 3

 

Hi CodeCruiser,

I have a button on my MDIParent, when it clicked then third party application is launch, the problem is every time it clicked another instance open. 
My code show below.

Dim FormFast As String = "C:\Program Files\FormFast\FormFastDataManager.exe"

Process.Start(FormFast, 1)

Thank you.

BVN

Answer 4

As i suggested in my first comment, use the Process.GetProcesses method to retrieve all the programs currently running and then if this program is not already running then start it.

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Answer 5

Check this link

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/7914

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Answer 6

Hi Cor,

I've tried implement your code in my MDIParent form, and I have this code in the button

 

Private Sub button_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles button.Click

 

Dim stnr As New StartNonRunningProcess()

stnr.StartNonRunningProcess(

"C:\Program Files\FormFast\FormFastDataManager.exe")

 

End Sub

And the Friend Class in the MDIParent itself.  The third party program will launch every time the button is clicked.  If I change Friend Classe from

If localByName Is Nothing Then
            Process.Start(Application)
        End If

to

If localByName IsNot Nothing Then
            Process.Start(Application)
        End If

If I am using your original code then third party program not launch at all.  What am I doing wrong?

Thank for your help.

BVN

Answer 7

Code Cruiser,

Thank you for your suggestion and info link, I've tried all that but nothing seem to work for me.

Thanks :-((

BVN

Answer 8

Use the getfilenamewithoutextentsions from the IO.Path method and use that to get the getprocessbyName

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path.getfilenamewithoutextension.aspx

Answer 9

If the suggestions from COR and CODECRUISER does not solve this issue, may be you try to get the application with windowtitle. Below is the code i used in one of my program

 Public Sub CheckApplicationRuning(ByVal applicationNameWithoutExtension As String)
        Dim proc, processT() As Process
        processT = Process.GetProcessesByName(applicationNameWithoutExtension)
        For Each proc In processT
            If proc.HasExited = False Then
                Return
            Else
                System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("Applicationname you want to run")

            End If
        Next
    End Sub
    Public Sub CheckprocessByWindowTitle(ByVal appTitlename As String)
        Dim wintitle As String = ""
        Dim applicationName As String = ""
        For Each p As Process In Process.GetProcesses()
            wintitle = p.MainWindowTitle
            If String.Compare(wintitle, appTitlename, True) = 0 Then
                applicationName = p.MainModule.FileName
                applicationName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(applicationName)
                Call IsApplicationRuning(applicationName)
            End If
        Next
    End Sub

kaymaf

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I hope this helps, if that is what you want, just mark it as answer so that we can move on

Answer 10

Hi KayMaf,

Thank you for your reply,  there is one little problem I got in your code, IsApplicationRunning is Not Declared, Any idea why? Do I need Imports NameSpace for it, if then what is it namespace?

Thank you so much.

BVN

Answer 11

Sorry for that, is my mistake, change it to Call CheckApplicationRuning(applicationName)

kaymaf

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I hope this helps, if that is what you want, just mark it as answer so that we can move on

Answer 12

Thanks Kaymaf,

Here is what I have in MDIParent Form

Public

 

Sub CheckApplicationRuning(ByVal applicationNameWithoutExtension As String)

 

Dim proc, processT() As Process

processT = Process.GetProcessesByName(applicationNameWithoutExtension)

 

For Each proc In processT

 

If proc.HasExited = False Then

 

Return

 

Else

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(

"C:\Program Files\FormFast\FormFastDataManager.exe")

 

End If

 

Next

 

End Sub

 

Public Sub CheckprocessByWindowTitle(ByVal appTitlename As String)

 

Dim wintitle As String = ""

 

Dim applicationName As String = ""

 

For Each p As Process In Process.GetProcesses()

wintitle = p.MainWindowTitle

 

If String.Compare(wintitle, appTitlename, True) = 0 Then

applicationName = p.MainModule.FileName

applicationName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(applicationName)

 

Call CheckApplicationRuning(applicationName)

 

End If

 

Next

 

End Sub

And I have this code in my Button, the button is on MDIParent form.

Private

 

Sub button_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles button.Click

 

Dim FormFast As String = "C:\Program Files\FormFast\FormFastDataManager.exe"

Process.Start(FormFast)

 

 

End Sub

Third party app. still launch every time the button is clicked.
I greatly appreciate your help.

BVN 

Answer 13

Tested

Although WinMail is a single instance program I could see that it works in the debugger

Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim stnr As New StartNonRunningProcess()
        stnr.StartNonRunningProcess("C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mail\WinMail.Exe")
    End Sub
End Class
Friend Class StartNonRunningProcess
    Public Sub StartNonRunningProcess(ByVal Application As String)
        Dim localByName As Process() = Process.GetProcessesByName(IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Application))
        For Each pRunning As Process In localByName
            If pRunning.HasExited = False Then Return
        Next
        Process.Start(Application)
    End Sub
End Class

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Success
Cor

Answer 14

Cor,

That is work, thank you soooooo Much................!

BVN