Ian Branch

"Intelligence" - I think, therefore I am..

Hi Team,

Despite my pitiful efforts I have managed to get App Tethering working between two Apps.

But, I have a problem.  IIUC, the Sender has to be running before the Receiver.  Something about establishing a socket

This I can't guarantee.  😞

Is there any way to configure App Tethering so it dosn't matter if the Sender or Receiver starts first??

Regards & TIA,

Ian

10 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

before you change global FormatSettings to avoid user changes to be applied if the application is already running.

Ahhh.  Tks for the tip.

10 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

Any code that uses own settings will behave in similar way.

That was always a/the risk.

10 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

users are allowed to have their preferer format used for viewing purposes,

Won't happen.

Tks to all for your inputs and guidance.

Regards,

Ian

Hi Dalija,

Thank you for your input.  Appreciated.

Have you ever worked with Pacific Islanders?

I have been dealing with them for the past 7 years and they can be extremely frustrating.

They will do things with their PC just because.  Including changing their date & time formats. and in a couple of cases their Region.

My Customer wants all the Apps to operate to a standard format, interestingly, to en-AU, despite what the User may have done with his/her PC.

I thought this would be a good way to enforce it.

Regards,

Ian

Hi Guys,

D11.3.1.

This is what I understand att.  Feel free to correct me if my understanding is incorrect.
1.  If I set FormatSettings with a Country code, i.e. "var FormatSettings := TFormatSettings.Create('en-AU');", then that action will configure the various TFormatSettings properties in SysUtils to the Australian formats.
2.  I can then forget about the variable FormatSettings.
3.  Having set these properties in SysUtils, whatever Unit has SysUtils will have/use the set properties.
4.  Any function/procedure that uses a FormatSettings property will now use the relevant set TFormatSettings property according to the Country/Region code employed in the '.Create()'.

Are my understandings correct?

Regards & TIA,
Ian

Hi p2k,

I didn't really know what to expect, although I thought it might be, in my case, Australia.

Yup it works, but it isn't perfect, yet.  😉

p2k,

I was just experimenting with Formatsettings and came across this that gave me nothing.

Ian

Hi Team,

Win 11, D11.3.1.

I am playing around with TFormatsettings and I am using this Emba code..

procedure Test;
var
   str1, str2: string;
   FS: TFormatSettings;
   strResult, strFormat: TStringBuilder;
begin
   strResult := TStringBuilder.Create;
   strFormat := TStringBuilder.Create;

   FS := TFormatSettings.Create('en-AU');
   strFormat.AppendFormat('%s %s', [FS.LongDateFormat, FS.LongTimeFormat]);
   str1 := FormatDateTime(strFormat.ToString, Now());
   strResult.AppendLine('1.'+str1);
   ShowMessage(FS.NormalizedLocaleName);
   strResult.AppendLine(FS.NormalizedLocaleName);

   //A second instance with a different locale (used for comparison)
   FS := TFormatSettings.Create('ro-RO');
   strFormat.Clear;
   strFormat.AppendFormat('%s %s', [FS.LongDateFormat, FS.LongTimeFormat]);
   str2 := FormatDateTime(strFormat.ToString, Now());
   strResult.AppendLine('2.'+str2);
   strResult.AppendLine(FS.NormalizedLocaleName);

   ShowMessage(strResult.ToString);
   //
end;

What should FS.NormalizedLocaleName return?  Emba Help says a string but I am getting nothing back.  Or maybe I am and it is blank.  Not expected.

Regards & TIA,

Ian

Hi Team,

Thank you for your inputs/suggestions?

It seems App Tethering might be an option also.

Is there  working demo with source of App Tethering?

Regards & TIA,

Ian

Hi Team,

D11.3.

I have an App that populates the captions of two labels.  It all works fine.

What I would like to do is make this captions availabe to other Apps rather than regerating them in the other Apps.

All the Apps are on a Windows 2012 Server.   Multi-User.  Some of the Apps may be running via RDP, the same and other Apps may be running via LAN, i.e. called from the Server and running physically on the User's PC.  Users are using Win 7 & Win 10 workstations.

The generating App may be being used at any time by many Users.

The term Message Broker came to my mind and IIRC there was something by one of the inhabitants of this Forum that might be my solution.

Can somebody refresh my memory and point me in the correct direction please?

Or, alternatives.  The simpler the better.  🙂

Regards & TIA,

Ian

Solved.  I added the count to the function.

function GetApplicationInstances(const FileName: string; out Count: Integer): TArray<string>;
var
  ProcessEntry: TProcessEntry32;
  Snapshot: THandle;
  ProcessList: TList<string>;
begin
  ProcessList := TList<string>.Create;
  try
    Snapshot := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
    if Snapshot <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
    begin
      ProcessEntry.dwSize := SizeOf(ProcessEntry);
      if Process32First(Snapshot, ProcessEntry) then
      begin
        repeat
          if (ProcessEntry.szExeFile = FileName) then // Replace with appropriate condition
          begin
            ProcessList.Add(ProcessEntry.szExeFile);
          end;
        until not Process32Next(Snapshot, ProcessEntry);
      end;
      CloseHandle(Snapshot);
    end;

    Result := ProcessList.ToArray;
    Count := ProcessList.Count;
  finally
    ProcessList.Free;
  end;
end;

Tks Guys.

Regards,

Ian

OK.  Moving on.  Using Enums rather than TProcess.

function GetApplicationInstances(const FileName: string): TArray<string>;
var
  ProcessEntry      : TProcessEntry32;
  Snapshot          : THandle;
  ProcessList       : TList<string>;
begin
  ProcessList := TList<string>.Create();
  try
    Snapshot := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
    if Snapshot <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
    begin
      ProcessEntry.dwSize := SizeOf(ProcessEntry);
      if Process32First(Snapshot, ProcessEntry) then
      begin
        repeat
          if (ProcessEntry.szExeFile = FileName) then // Replace with appropriate condition
          begin
            ProcessList.Add(ProcessEntry.szExeFile);
          end;
        until not Process32Next(Snapshot, ProcessEntry);
      end;
      CloseHandle(Snapshot);
    end;

    Result := ProcessList.ToArray;
  finally
    ProcessList.Free;
  end;
end;

I have the following lines.

var Instances: TArray<string>;
Instances := GetApplicationInstances(sFileName);

I can't see a way to get the number of elements in the TArray.

I thought "for var i := 0 to TArray(Instances).Count do Memo1.Lines.Add(Instances);" would be a monty, but no.

How please?

Hi Team,

I found that bit of code and thought it would do the trick.  Oh well.

What I am try to achieve is a delphi function that when given a full application path/name, return how many instances are in use and who is using them.

1 minute ago, Remy Lebeau said:

Delphi does not have any native classes named TProcess or TProcessList.  This is clearly based on 3rd party code.

Bummer.

Any suggestions?

Hi Team,

D11.3.1.

I have the following function I am trying to get to work..

function GetApplicationInstances(const FileName: string): TArray<string>;
var
  ProcessList: TProcessList;
  Process: TProcess;
  i: Integer;
begin
  Result := TArray<string>.Create;
  ProcessList := TProcessList.Create;
  try
    for i := 0 to ProcessList.Count - 1 do begin
      Process := ProcessList[i];
      if Process.FileName = FileName then begin
        Result.Add(Process.UserName);
      end;
    end;
  finally
    ProcessList.Free;
  end;
end;

I have bothe System.SysUtils and System.Diagnostics in my Uses clause but I am still gettin an 'undeclared identifier' for TProcessList and TProcess.

What have I missed please?

Regards & TIA,

Ian

Tks Team.

All sorted.

Regards,

Ian

Hi Lajos,

Great call.  I found that if I had the System.Zlib after the VCL.Graphics, all is fine.  Before and I get the issue.

Tks for the assist.

Regards,

Ian

Edit:  I didn't need VCL.Graphics in the library anyway. 😉

Hi Team,

D11.3.1.

I have this compression routine.

procedure CompressStream(SourceStream: TMemoryStream; DestStream: TMemoryStream);
var
  ZStream           : TCompressionStream;
begin
  ZStream := TCompressionStream.Create(clDefault, DestStream);
  try
    ZStream.CopyFrom(SourceStream, SourceStream.Size);
  finally
    ZStream.Free;
  end;
end;

If I have this procedure in my main form it is happy.

If I move it to my Function library, I get this..

Why should it be happy in the main form an not in the library?

Yes, I have System.ZLib in the uses in both cases

Thoughts/suggestions?

Regards & TIA,

Ian

Hi Remy,

Yes, seriously. 

I don't really understand what goes on in Threads and therefore what you can and can't do.

I am still learning about them.

p2k,

Tks.  I will have a look.

Tks to both of you.

Regards,

Ian

Hi Team,

I have ths construct:

    var GeneralThread := TThread.CreateAnonymousThread(procedure
      begin
        //
        tqServerSessions.Close;
        //
        try
          if TEDBEngineSessionManager(DBSWhoIsOn.Handle).TryLock(1) then
          begin
            TEDBEngineSessionManager(DBSWhoIsOn.Handle).Unlock;
            { Session is not locked and is safe for you to use }
            tqServerSessions.ExecSQL;
          end
          else
            // Delay for the specified amount of time
            TThread.Sleep(500);
          //
        except
          ...
          ...
        end;
        //
        tqServerSessions.Last;
        //
        ...
        ...
      end);

How do I safely loop the Try-Else  for x times, and then break out after x times?

Ahhh.  Yes.  m.size.  Shoulda thought of that.

Tks.

Ian

Hi Team,

I am ostensibly sending a PDF file to a TMemoryStream.

How do I test if the TMemoryStream has been 'loaded'?

Regards & TIA,

Ian

2 minutes ago, Uwe Raabe said:

Make it TComponent:

Now we're getting fancy.  😉  But I like it.  🙂

Hi Renate,

That looks like a winner but this..

SetDBSessionNames(Self, sSessionName);

Gives me this in this case..

Quote

[dcc32 Error] dmCurrent.pas(821): E2010 Incompatible types: 'TForm' and 'TdmC'

In this case it is a Datamodule the function is being called from.

Ian

Edit:  Solved - I made it an overload method and created one that use a TDataModule.