launching external app without flashing of cmd window

[kksou]

When running php-gtk using php-win on windows, and launching external application from within php-gtk, one will always see a brief flashing of a cmd window.

For those interested, I've posted a solution which we have been using for some time at:
http://www.kksou.com/php-gtk2/articles/launch-external-app-in-winxp-without-the-flashing-of-cmd-window.php

It basically make use of a freeware utility called cmdow utility from http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/ that allows you to hide a command window. We find this a great tool for interfacing php-gtk with external applications, e.g. open a url in browser or playing a mp3 file using an external player.

/kksou

[Elizabeth Smith]

kksou wrote:

> When running php-gtk using php-win on windows, and launching external
> application from within php-gtk, one will always see a brief flashing of a
> cmd window.
>
> For those interested, I've posted a solution which we have been using for
> some time at:
> http://www.kksou.com/php-gtk2/articles/launch-external-app-in-winxp-without-the-flashing-of-cmd-window.php
>
> It basically make use of a freeware utility called cmdow utility from
> http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/ that allows you to hide a command
> window. We find this a great tool for interfacing php-gtk with external
> applications, e.g. open a url in browser or playing a mp3 file using an
> external player.
>
> /kksou

That's kind of way overkill to launch a url/email address on windows
xp... and you have to use a non open-source extra application which
several antivirus programs flag...

The trick to launching an external url/email/even generic file on
windows is to use the start command (useful for launching files with the
registered program so you're not one of those annoying people who open
IE when I use firefox)

The trick to get around the flashing dos window is to use com and
WScript.Shell

$shell = new COM('WScript.Shell');
$shell->Run('cmd /c start "" "' . $url . '"', 0, FALSE);
unset($shell);

I've also found this is about three times as fast as exec or popen on XP

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[André Jansen]

On 5 Oct 2006 at 15:28, Elizabeth Smith wrote:

> kksou wrote:
> > When running php-gtk using php-win on windows, and launching external
> > application from within php-gtk, one will always see a brief flashing of
> > a cmd window.
> >
> > For those interested, I've posted a solution which we have been using
> > for some time at:
> > http://www.kksou.com/php-gtk2/articles/launch-external-app-in-winxp-with
> > out-the-flashing-of-cmd-window.php
> >
> > It basically make use of a freeware utility called cmdow utility from
> > http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/ that allows you to hide a command
> > window. We find this a great tool for interfacing php-gtk with external
> > applications, e.g. open a url in browser or playing a mp3 file using an
> > external player.
> >
> > /kksou
>
> That's kind of way overkill to launch a url/email address on windows xp...
> and you have to use a non open-source extra application which several
> antivirus programs flag...
>
> The trick to launching an external url/email/even generic file on
> windows is to use the start command (useful for launching files with the
> registered program so you're not one of those annoying people who open IE
> when I use firefox)

**AMEN**
(the windoze HTML help has this behaviour, which I find pretty horrible)


> The trick to get around the flashing dos window is to use com and
> WScript.Shell
>
> $shell = new COM('WScript.Shell');
> $shell->Run('cmd /c start "" "' . $url . '"', 0, FALSE);
> unset($shell);
>
> I've also found this is about three times as fast as exec or popen on XP

Another way is to use the win32std extension (mentioned the other day in
the thread about "printing in windows")

http://pecl.php.net/package/win32std

win_shell_execute("C:\\path\\to\\some\\file.html") without any further
arguments will execute the standard action on the file, equivalent to a
double click in windows explorer. Which means that the file will be
opened in your default browser. No flashing CMD window to be seen.
Works with urls too of course.

One could also execute various "right click" actions such as "edit":
win_shell_execute("C:\\path\\to\\some\\file.html","edit") should open the
file in your default html editor.

Not very different from using a COM object I admit, but at least one does
not have to dig through the - sometimes rather opaque - COM docs in order
to be able to use it. The win32std documentation is 6 pages or so.

The win32std extension provides the additional advantage of being able to
call windows file system dialogs. Which is great if you will be foisting
your application on unsuspecting windows users who, in my experience,
tend to get very confused when confronted by a GtkFileChooserDialog. I
guess this aspect of win32std has saved me at least 50 angry phonecalls.


Cheers,
--
André
===========================================================
Black Holes were created when God divided by zero.

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[kksou]

Thanks to both of you! Have tried both your suggested methods and they worked really well - straightforward and fast!

The win32std in particular opens up a lot more exciting things we never thought possible before with php-gtk!

Thanks and Regards,
/kksou