Where are command line options stored?

[rmcgaffic]

The A5V9 help contains documentation for Starting Alpha Five with Command Line options, which never really explains where the command line code should be stored, what the extension of the file should be or how it should be executed.

Can someone shed some light on these options.

I assume that a somehow a batch file is created, but I can't seem to locate any specifics.

Forum member Tom Henkel posted a nice example of how he customized his Windows title bar, splash screen, and icon which included
1. Code for the command line
2. Code for the "Startup" file

But Tom didn't provide these details either. Maybe they are just assumed, but I plead ignorance.

I know the "Startup" file has an .txt extension, but what about the file for the command line itself?

I normally think Start>Run>Open:cmd as the way of executing a command line. But I sure would like to avoid typing the code in each time I use A5 with my application.

Thanks,
Bob McGaffic

[Al Buchholz]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Bob

From the control panel, tools - create shortcut

That will generate a shortcut on your desktop with command options and a startup file if you add xbasic commands in the last tab of the dialog.

That'll be an example that you can learn from.

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Thanks, Al. I'll give that a try.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[Doug Page]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

A simplified explanation:

The command line is where the instruction goes to tell the operating system what to do. If you ever used DOS, you had what was called a "C" prompt - that is the command line. If you have not used DOS, in Windows you can start up a window called "Command Prompt". Once this is started, you are at the command line. The OS only takes the first parameter (usually a program, batch file, etc.) and all other parameters are passed to it upon execution. So that program must be able to interpret them and decide what to do. Alpha Five does accept command line options and that is what is listed in the help docs.

A shortcut just stores all the information in a neat and tidy little package that is passed to the command line.

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Doug,

Just what I was looking for. I didn't want to type in a long, tricky text string. Thanks again to both you guys.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[CALocklin]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Be careful if you are creating a generic app that could be installed nearly anywhere - including any folder. If you use A5's built-in shortcut genie, it is only designed to work in the folder it was originally created in. (There may be some way to use relative paths - I don't know but it doesn't seem to do that in the genie.)

Before getting into this, I'd like to point out that the "command line" options don't require using DOS. They go right in the properties of the Windows shortcut. See the window where it says "Target:" - that's where the command line goes. The actual "target" is the first thing and all the arguments follow it.

The "Start in:" may not be required anymore but leaving it blank used to cause some of the ".dd*" and ".se*" files to show up on the desktop so I still use it just in case.

The full "command line" in this particular case is:
C:\PROGS\A5V7\alpha5.exe -nosplash -title="Trak-It6" -icon="E:\A5v7\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak-it.ico" "E:\a5v7\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it6.adb"

Basically this is:
<The exe program to run> <series of arguments for the program to use>
In Alpha's case, this can be further broken down into:
<The exe program to run> <the .adb file to be opened> <optional startup commands that all start with "-">

As it happens, Alpha doesn't care if the .adb file comes before or after the optional startup arguments and I happened to put the .adb file last in this case. (The fact that the order doesn't matter actually reduces the complexity. However, it may cause confusion if you are looking at multiple examples and wondering "which sequence is right" - it doesn't matter.)

I know that a big long command line like that is really difficult to read and even more complicated to build for anyone who only builds databases (yes, I'm being facetious) but there is an easy way to start getting used to it. You can start by using the Genie as mentioned in one of the posts above. The resulting .startup file for this one would contain this:
-TITLE="Trak-It6
-NOSPLASH
-ICON=E:\A5v7\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak-it.ico"
As it happens, I chose to type the parameter names in lower case and Alpha's genie uses upper case. (more "complexity") Take a close look at the "command line" above and you will see all the other really huge differences. (Yes, I'm being facetious again.)

Another reference is my A5 Command Line Options page. Or, lookup "Starting Alpha Five With Command Line Options" in Alpha's Help file. Their Help file has been updated with some commands that weren't available when I created that web page.

And Alpha's command line in their actual shortcut would be:
C:\PROGS\a5v9\alpha5.exe "E:\a5v9\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it.adb" -INCLUDE="E:\a5v9\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it.startup"
which really doesn't look much better than my "full" command line above. And, what bugs me about the "include" file is that I can't just look at the link properties to see/verify how the program starts. Now I have to go find that "include" file and open it too - more work for me and I don't like that! (It has been my experience that most things intended to make something "easy" actually create more work for those who know how to do it the "regular" way.)

(Note: If there are blank spaces in the "program name" part of the shortcut, then you must enclose it in quotes. This is a Windows issue - not an Alpha issue. So, if this was in my Program Files folder the command line would have to be:
"C:\Program Files\a5v9\alpha5.exe" "E:\a5v9\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it.adb" -INCLUDE="E:\a5v9\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it.startup")

Note that the -INCLUDE argument just points to a text file that has all the actual options/arguments in it. In some cases, I've actually seen INCLUDE files with no argumements. In that case, it could have been left off completely and the full command line would be just:
C:\PROGS\a5v9\alpha5.exe "E:\a5v9\Trak-It_SP\App\Trak_it.adb"

So what's the problem with using the genie you say? There isn't any - as long as you either build the shortcut on the computer that you are using the application on or you force other users to always install it in a specified folder. The genie, out of necessity I'd guess, hard codes the path into the shortcut which means it won't work on another computer if the application is stored in a different folder. The problem with forcing it to be in a specific folder is that some customers may want to put the application in some other folder or even another drive and get really angry if you say they can't do that. Only a few get upset but some have very legitimate reasons for wanting to put it somewhere else. This is more likely to happen in larger organizations where the IT department has its own requirements (idiosyncrasies?).

There's also the fact that you will need to understand something about building shortcuts yourself if you want to use a 3rd party installer such as Astrum or Wise. In that case you will have to understand the really difficult concept of what is the "link target" (program being run) and what constitutes the rest of the "command line" (all the other arguments).

For those of you who use Astrum, here's a typical startup icon definition as would be used in Astrum:

For anyone interested, the full Command line is: <InstallDir>\Trak_It\Trak_It.adb -nosplash -title="Trak-It SP" -icon="<InstallDir>\Trak_It\Trak-It.ico"

As I hope anyone reading this can figure out, the use of the <InstallDir> variable allows this to be installed to any folder on any drive on any computer. If I was using the .startup file and the -Include= command, that wouldn't be possible because the path to the icon file would be hard coded inside the file.

One other comment. If you don't understand what's going on with shortcuts, how much trouble will you (that's a generic "you" not aimed at anyone in particular) be in when a customer deletes one or, worse yet, messes one up and you have to fix it? (Rare but it has happened to me.)

[georgefurnel]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Cal, can you give guidence on the 'launch program file" option in Astrum, cause it does not follow the same format as the shortcut.

Here is my current settings, but it does not work : <InstallDir>\alpha5.exe <InstallDir>\Application\PLM.adb -INCLUDE=<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.startup

Any idea?

Kind regards
George

[Michael Humby]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Another useful tip following Cal's brilliant explanation. If you should ever want to make changes to a shortcut's target or the start in then Windows will not accept a change unless the folders/paths actually exist on the PC where your shortcut is pointing.

In other words, the folder that the shortcut points to must already exist before Windowswill allow a change.

Michael

[CALocklin]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Cal, can you give guidence on the 'launch program file" option in Astrum, cause it does not follow the same format as the shortcut.

Here is my current settings, but it does not work : <InstallDir>\alpha5.exe <InstallDir>\Application\PLM.adb -INCLUDE=<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.startup

Any idea?

Kind regards
George

I've never used that option. My guess is that either:

1. It will only start A5 (whatever the main program is) but doesn't recognize the rest of the command line.

or, more likely (although still just guessing):

2. There may be blank spaces in your path and you need to add quotes so Windows can figure out what's what. (Isn't the INCLUDE file supposed to be in quotes anyway? Again, I don't use it so I'm not sure.)

Perhaps something like this:

"<InstallDir>\alpha5.exe" "<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.adb" -INCLUDE="<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.startup"

[georgefurnel]

Re: Where are command line options stored?

Cal,

You are absolutely correct the format "<InstallDir>\alpha5.exe" "<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.adb" -INCLUDE="<InstallDir>\Application\PLM.startup" works perfectly.

Kind regards
george