Two Apps at Once?

[Charles Hoens]

I have an issue with an app I've created. First, the app is working fine.

Inside the app is a timer screen, which is open and runs all the time on the server. The Timer screen has the date and time displayed on it, and in the morning at various times, fires off OnTimer events to update various dbf's or FTP files, etc.

Problem with the server though is that it needs to be rebooted every once and a while, or in some instances it crashes because of power issues, etc.

The main app is networked and everyone has to supply a username and password. Same for the server copy.

My question is this. Can I have two apps running at the same time in the same directory? If so, then I can create a separate app which bypasses the security and starts up the Timer screen. That would mean less overhead because the main app is not running, just the Timer app.

I hope this makes sense to one of you gurus out there, or perhaps you have solved this problem in some other way?

Charlie

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Two Apps at Once?

If your machine has the resources you can have many databases open at the same time. The tables and support files for these databases can exist in the same directory. The tables for these databases can be shared so long as you negotiate any access conflicts.

[martinwcole]

Re: Two Apps at Once?

If you have an app on the server running all the time, and you have a timer, I would be sure to set the timer interval as high as possible as it will be requiring processor usage.

I have two clients where they are doing something similar, but I put the app on a dedicated workstation instead of the server.

[Charles Hoens]

Re: Two Apps at Once?

Thanks all.

It's surprising how many times I post something only to find out later a workaround or idea that answers the original question. This is a testament to the flexability of Alpha5.

The way I finally sorted this out, was to put some code into the main form that loads on startup i.e.:

if API_GETMACHINENAME() ="WHATEVER"
script_play("Admin_Timer")
else
script_play("Security1")
end if

This then allows me to know that the server will run the Admin_Timer script as opposed to the normal Security1 script that has the password login for everyone else.

I then created a Schedule timer event in Windows XP that reboots the computer each day at a specific time and then restarts the app. Even if I get a power glitch, the server will now auto-reboot with the app being loaded.

Anyway, it works and does the job.

Thanks,

Charlie

[Davidk]

Re: Two Apps at Once?

Not sure if you could use this, but something to keep in mind. Saw this in the help file and thought it might apply...

Command Line Startup Option

-PROCESSOR=cpu_index
V8
When running on a multi-processor computer, selects the primary processor for Alpha Five. This aplies to mulitple physical processors, multiple cores and mulitple virtual processors (Hyper-Threading CPUs).

cpu_index is zero-based. If the specified cpu_index is higher than the number of processors available on the system, it is ignored.

-PROCESSOR=1