Open a .bat file

[Tom Patten]

Hi,

I need to open a .bat file (a backup program) that is located in a sub directory of my application.

I want to use (dir_get()...) but when I combine it with either sys_shell or sys-open it doesn't work.

What is the proper way to open a .bat file when you only know the directory relative to the application directory.

Thanks

Tom

[Stephen Williams]

RE: Open a .bat file

I use variables with sys_shell to backup and restore to a backup directory and this is what I came up with. It works great. You can mess with the rest. I actually put this code in the Code Archive under Backups

..sundry code
..
'Get current path with open wildcard
cpath = :A5.Get_Path()
bpath = substr(cpath,1,AT(chr(92),cpath,-1))+"Backup" 'backup path is a directory on the same level as app.
..more code
..
sys_shell(PwrAchvr+backopts+" "+Backf+" "+cpath+"*.*",1)

note: backopts are command line options and Backf is the name of the file created with the back up

[Bob Elliott]

RE: Open a .bat file

Check out this Message ID from Selwyn:

Msg ID: 19142
Subject: RE: Opening other app files
Author: Selwyn Rabins

[Jerry Hartness]

RE: Open a .bat file

Tom Cone has a backup utility on Learn Alpha Five
http://www.learn alpha.com/ that does the job very well.
He used PKZip (windows version) but I changed mine
to use the DOS version.
The article is called Backup your Data from with Alpha Five
dtd 5-16-99.

Jerry

[Tom Patten]

RE: Open a .bat file

Thanks all - I'm on it - or at least in a little while.

Tom

[Tom Patten]

RE: Open a .bat file

Hi again,

After reading Tom Cone's article, and reading Selwyn's message, and reading Steve Wms message I still cannot get my .bat file to run.

Its in a subdirectory to A5program files, called Backup, and within backup the file name is Palsbkpa.bat

sys_shell(:A5Get_Path()+"backup|Palsbkpa.bat",1)
does not work.

My trial and error approach is not getting me anywhere.

Thanks

Tom

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Open a .bat file

Hi Tom,

This board eats stuff it thinks is HTML, but you need a period in :A5.get_path() command

and you need a back slash before the 'b' in backup.
Go to your interactive screen in the code editor and paste the parameter string in with a question mark in front of it and you'll soon see how Alpha is parsing your statement.

Jim

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Open a .bat file

...and remember to use chr(92) instead of the backslash character itself.

-- tom

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Open a .bat file

Tom

The :a5.get_path() returns a value that does not end in a backslash, so you have to add that in the text in quotations.

sys_shell(:a5.get_path()+"/backup/palsbkpa.bat")
(backslashes replaced with slashes)

Another issue which may affect you is that the script does not pause while the shelled command runs. This may or may not be a problem. If you want the script to pause, you have to add a loop which ends when the batch file finishes or runs for a specific length of time. The following is a cut and paste from a backup script I use.

timer = toseconds(time())

if file.exists(:A5.Get_Private_Path()+"/done.txt")
file.remove(:A5.Get_Private_Path()+"/done.txt")
end if

sys_shell(:A5.Get_Path()+"backup.bat")

while .not.file.exists(:A5.Get_Private_Path()+"/done.txt")
if toseconds(time()) - timer > 60
error_generate("Timed Out Error")
exit while
end if
end while

For this to work, the last line of the batch file must copy a file to "done.txt" in the private path. In my batch file, I copy the batch file itself to "done.txt". The file doesn't exist until the batch file is complete. Be sure to include the time out exit or the bat file may run until you reboot. Been there, done that. Include an on error line before this code to have an place to go if the error is generated.

Jerry

[Tom Patten]

RE: Open a .bat file

Thank You Gentlemen (boy, I had high powered help with this)

I had it working in the interactive window, but then when I moved it to the script window, the script editor didn't like it.

But thanks to you all, it now works fine. Tom had the secret I needed "chr(92)" Now I know what that is for!

When I worked with A4 I had a list of all the ASC and CHR() codes, I'll have to look for it, seems it may still come in handy.

Thanks again

Tom