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Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

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    #1

    Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

    I have an attendance package I've developed for a small elementary school. There's a shortcut to the app on every teacher's desktop. Some users are impatient and will click the icon more that one doubleclick which results in the application being opened more than once. Of course only the last window actually contains the database, but the other windows being open at the same time often cause problems in some of the scripts I run (trapped errors and such). Ideally I would like only one instance of the application to open, meaning if the user selects the desktop icon a second time, it merely opens the first instance of the application. Any suggestions?
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

    Dennis:

    Your goal is, indeed noble, but your users really have to take some responsibility for themselves. The should check to see if there are TWO instances on the taskbar and THEY should close one and not 'do that' any more.

    I looked back to the way I did it for one of my earlier clients who JUST HAD TO HAVE IT THAT WAY. After a couple of power outages and service calls to delete the file, he had me take it out.

    Notepad with word-wrap shoul;d display o.k.

    Ken

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      #3
      RE: Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

      Tyler,

      Ken's approach writes a file to disk when the app starts, and then deletes it when the app ends. The autoexec script for the app (or the OnInit for the startup form) looks for the file. If it's present a message box is displayed and the app shuts down.

      The difficulty comes if the app ends abnormally. The disk file persists, and the user can't open the application with intervention from tech support. Rebooting the system won't help since the disk file remains, even after a reboot.

      You could modify Ken's approach to use a table instead of a disk file. On startup a record would be updated and saved. On shutdown the record would be changed and saved. The startup routines would check the field value on startup to determine if another instance of the app has already set the field value, and shut down if that had happened.

      This approach suffers from the same difficulty as Ken's. If the app ends abnormally, the field value never gets updated to show that the first instance of the app has actually ended.

      An alternative would be to modify the approach outlined in my article at www.learn alpha.com called something like "A concurrent licensing system". A local table would be used, instead of a shared table on the server. On startup a change would started in the local table, but never finished (never saved). This would leave the record in the local table "locked". When the second instance of the app starts up it could try to change the same record. When it finds the record locked it could give the user a msg box and then close itself. If the first app ends normally the pending change would be released. If the first app ends abnormally, a reboot of the local workstation would clear the locked file.

      -- tom

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        #4
        RE: Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

        with intervention from tech support

        should have been


        without intervention from tech support




        -- sorry, t

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          #5
          RE: Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

          Great stuff Tom

          I think that all three fo us will, sooner or later, agree that the user has to change his/her habits and look at the taskbar. How bullet proof must we be.

          Ken

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            #6
            RE: Startup Icon - Too Many Clicks

            Thanks guys. I agree that the user has to be more careful, but then these are teachers we are talking about! (Those of you who work in education will know what I mean). I'm going to try these approaches and let you know what works. Thanks again for your assistance.
            Tyler

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