RUN "HELPFILE.PDF" launches undesired Command Prompt window

[flotul]

Hi there,

I'm adding a help file to my program.

To do so, I have made a PDF I would like to display lauching it with RUN command.

It does work wery well but it launches a Command Prompt window too.

Can I avoid this DOS window?

[Brandon Parker]

Can you post the code that you are using so that we can help resolve the issue? It should be easily doable, but if it does not work for some reason or another, I have ShellExecute function that I can post for you. It would be better to work from you code to start with though so that we can get a sense if something else is going on.


{:0)

Brandon Parker

[flotul]

Hello Brandon,

In my program, I do have a "Help" option in the menu bar. This will trigger the [CODE-LIST-WINDOW] subroutine here under.


' ----- CODE-LIST-WINDOW --------------------
[CODE-LIST-WINDOW]
  RUN "LISTE_DES_CODES_UTILISATEURS.PDF"
  WAIT


To display PDF documents, I use SUMATRA (https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader). It's a very light reader and it is set as default viewer in "my" Windows10.

I just noticed that if I change my default viewer for another viewer, i.e. CHROME, the DOS window will not appear.

On the other hand, when I open a PDF document with SUMATRA from my desktop (= not launched from within LB), I don't have the DOS window opening.

Finally, the DOS window will automatically close when I close the SUMATRA viewer confirming it is related.

Still, why is it doing this?

[Rod]

The trick is to force the users system to use explorer.exe to open the .pdf. That is the safest way as all browsers are pdf capable and you need not care which browser is used.

libertybasiccom.proboards.com/thread/1652/open-documents-liberty-basic-explorer

[flotul]

Thanks Rod ;-)

[metro]

you could also try

b$ = "C:\path2ThePDF\screen.pdf"

RUN "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler ";b$


[flotul]

Jan 16, 2022 4:08:41 GMT -5 metro said:

you could also try

b$ = "C:\path2ThePDF\screen.pdf"

RUN "rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler ";b$


WOW!!!!! 

Thanks so much Metro!!

It does the trick :-)  No DOS windows anymore. BRAVO!

Thanks again :-)

[mknarr]

I use the following and have no issues when the pdf closes.
run "explorer ";DefaultDir$+"\help\"+"ShowSec Manual.pdf"
This is the main help file for the whole program but it is a commercial program that has 59 Dialog Modal windows for different features and each one has a help button. That button opens an rtf file in another dialog window by passing the name of the help file to this subroutine.
[Help] 'Display Help files
   WindowWidth = 800
   if DisplayHeight<601 then
       WindowHeight=600
   else
       WindowHeight = DisplayHeight-100
   end if
   BackgroundColor$ = "buttonface"
   ForegroundColor$ = "black"
   button #help.default, "enter", [helpok],UL,-400,-400
   button #help.b1, "", [helpok], UL,368, WindowHeight-85,63,39 'ok
   stylebits #help.b1, _BS_BITMAP,0,0,0
   button #help.b2, "", [helpprint], UL,755, WindowHeight-70,25,25 'print
   stylebits #help.b2, _BS_BITMAP,0,0,0
   stylebits #help, _DS_CENTER,0,0,0
   open "Show Secretary Help" For dialog_modal As #help

   #help, "trapclose [helpok]"
   #help, "font arial 10 "+WindowFont$
   hTip=CreateTooltip(hwnd(#help))
   call AddToolTip Hwnd(#help.b1),hTip, "Close Help "
   call AddToolTip Hwnd(#help.b2),hTip, "Print Help window "
   Call BitmapButton Hwnd(#help.b1), HBmp("ok")
   Call BitmapButton Hwnd(#help.b2), HBmp("print")
   open "RICHED32.DLL" for dll as #re
   calldll #comctl32, "InitCommonControlsEx",ret as void
   hlpT=CreateTextEdit(hWnd(#help),10,10,775,WindowHeight-110)
   HelpFile$=DefaultDir$+"\help\"+help$
   open HelpFile$ for input as #HelpText
   text$=input$(#HelpText,lof(#HelpText))
   close #HelpText
   call SetWindowText hlpT,text$
   wait

   [helpprint] 'Print help
   if Owner$="Show Secretary Demo Program" then
       notice "Sorry!"+chr$(13)+"Printing is disabled in the demo!"
       wait
   end if
   run "write.exe "+chr$(34)+HelpFile$+chr$(34)+" /p",hide
   wait

   [helpok]
   close #help
   close #re
   return


Just another idea.

[flotul]

Thanks mknarr.

I'll keep that for my next program - excellent idea! ;-)