I have an application that creates a shortcut on my desktop and allows you to drag and drop files into the shortcut to perform an action (convert a word document to PDF). Now what I am trying to do is perform this action programmatically using shellexecute (.NET Process.Start()).
The problem is that it doesnt seem to be working and I have a sneaking suspicion this has something to do with the fact that the shortcut created has the "Start in" parameter set to a specific folder.
So it looks like this:
Shortcut target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPDFConvertor\MyPDFConvertor.exe"
Shortcut startin: "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPDFConvertor\SomeSubfolder\SomeSubSubFolder"
My code was the following.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MyPDFConvertor\\MyPDFConvertor.exe", "C:\\MyFiles\\This is a test word document.docx");
Fundamentally my question boils down to: What does "Startin" actually mean/do for shortcuts and can I replicate this functionality when starting an application using either shellexecute or Process.Start?
When you use Process.Start you can call it with a ProcessStartInfo which in turn happens to be able to setup a WorkingDirectory property - this way you can replicate that behaviour.
As Yahia said, set the WorkingDirectory property. You also need to quote the arguments. Here is a rough example:
//System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MyPDFConvertor\\MyPDFConvertor.exe", "C:\\MyFiles\\This is a test word document.docx");
ProcessStartInfo start = new ProcessStartInfo();
//must exist, and be fully qualified:
start.FileName = Path.GetFullPath("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MyPDFConvertor\\MyPDFConvertor.exe");
//set working directory:
start.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetFullPath("C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPDFConvertor\SomeSubfolder\SomeSubSubFolder");
//arguments must be quoted:
const char quote = '"';
start.Arguments = quote + "C:\\MyFiles\\This is a test word document.docx" + quote;
//disable the error dialog
start.ErrorDialog = false;
try
{
Process process = Process.Start(start);
if(process == null)
{//started but we don't have access
}
else
{
process.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = process.ExitCode;
}
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("failed to start the program.");
}
Related
I have a number of shiny applications with the file structure global.R, ui.R, server.R and something I call batchTrigger.R. The contents of the latter is simply the following-
.libPath(*Path to my R Package Repository*)
require('shiny')
runApp(*Path to the folder with the aforementioned files*)
I created a batch file called application.cmd with the following code-
cls
#pushd ""
:::::::::::::::::::
#echo off
ECHO Loading...Please, wait. The Application will open automatically.
ECHO ---
ECHO Do not close this console window for the whole duration of your session
ECHO in the application.
ECHO ---
#echo off
"C:\Program Files\R\bin\Rscript.exe" ".../**batchTrigger.R**"
:::::::::::::::::::
#popd
cmd /k
This batch file is working just fine. Then I went one step further, and decided to create a windows form with multiple R Applications. I have two buttons in the form, each of which goes something like this-
private void application1_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new Process();
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "...\\**application1.cmd**";
cmd.StartInfo.Arguments = "/K";
cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.Start();
}
So far, so good. Both the buttons work exactly as they were supposed to. I want to go one more step ahead, but since I am very new at C#, I need help. What I am hoping to get is a dynamic location for the R files and the cmd files within the thus deployed application, within the solution. In other words, I should be able to write the contents of the batch file within the C# code, and the path of the batchTrigger.R should be something which changes with the location of the windows form application (which will be a self contained deployed executable file). The idea is that the R package repository and R installation may remain static and can be pointed at by the batchTrigger.R and application.cmd respectively, but the location of batchTrigger.R itself along with other R files move with the application. I think that resource.resx can do something about this, but how exactly can I go about doing it, I don't seem to get. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.
Make a general method:
private void StartSilentR(string rScriptFilePath)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new Process();
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\Program Files\R\bin\Rscript.exe";
cmd.StartInfo.Arguments = rScriptFilePath;
cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
//avoid this unless you must control the app via stdin
//cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.Start();
}
Then write something that calls it after working out where the script is. For example if you have your directory structure as:
RLauncherCSharpApp.exe
rscripts\ui.R
rscripts\global.R
rscripts\batchTrigger.R
Then in c# you can:
//take exe Path, remove exe name and add rscripts folder and batchtrigger.R file name
var rbt = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath), "rscripts", "batchTrigger.R");
StartSilentR(rbt);
Or, say you want to search all the subfolders of the app's folder looking for all files called batchTrigger.R:
var exeFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);
string[] paths = Directory.GetFiles(exeFolder, "batchTrigger.R", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
//maybe add them to a list view and the user can click one to launch ..
I am working on an NSIS installer (windows forms application).
The main idea of the application - user goes through a windows forms application, configures all the needed settings and when he/she clicks on "finish" an .nsis file gets generated automatically. makeNSIS.exe is also included in my application, so that a user does not have to install it in order to use my installer.
My goal is to silently produce a setup.exe file. I want to pass my automatically generated .nsi file as an argument to the makeNSIS.exe per cmd, tell it to execute it and create a setup.exe file at a certain path. And I want teh whole thing done silently.
One of my failed trials:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
//my automatically generated nsis file
psi.Arguments = Application.StartupPath + "\\NSIS\\NSIS SG Project\\NSIS\\My application.nsi";
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
//nsis application that is included in my project so that users wouldn't have to install it
psi.FileName = Application.StartupPath + "\\NSIS\\makeNSIS.exe";
Process.Start(psi);
What am I doing wrong?
NSIS.exe is not the compiler, MakeNSIS.exe is! The Stubs, Plugins and Include directories are also required and probably the Contribs directory as well.
I know this is old question, but i have one of possible solution for this.
If you write app in C# (WinForm, WPF etc.) you can use this:
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
CreateNoWindow = true,
UseShellExecute = false,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
//Path to makensis.exe
FileName = "C:\\NSIS\\makensis.exe",
//make the window Hidden
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
//Source to your nsis script
Arguments = "D:\\Script\\myapp.nsi"
};
try
{
using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo))
{
exeProcess.WaitForExit();
}
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
// handle exception
}
In many cases this is a universal solution for me.
I am trying to run ".sh" file from c# core application.But it doesn't seem to be running properly.Here is my scenario.
I am working on .Net core project which is hosted on Linux environment.We are trying to create "PDF" in our project for which we have used "Apache FOP".
Here i have created one "shell script" file "transform.sh" which internally calls "fop" with required parameters.Since developement is being done on windows machine we tested the same usinf "batch" file i.e. "transform.bat",but since we cannot use the "batch" file on linux enviornment we have created shell script file "transform.sh"
Following is the code from"transform.sh"
./fop -xml $1 -xsl $2 -pdf $3
Following is C# code from which i am calling the "shell script file
var process = new Process
{
StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
UseShellExecute = false,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
Arguments = string.Format("{0} {1} {2}", XML_filename, XSL_filename, output)
}
};
process.StartInfo.FileName = "Path to shell script file";
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
Above code doesnot give any error but it also does not create the pdf file.If i directly run the shell script file from "Terminal" it works fine and create pdf file.
./transform.sh "/home/ubuntu/psa//PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/XMLFolder/test.xml" "/home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/XSLTFolder/Certificate.xsl" "/home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/PDFFolder/t444t.pdf"
Please let me know if there is something wrong i am doing?How can i make the sheel script run on linux through C# core application.
Thanks.
I was able to solve the issue,just thought that i should put my solution here so that it may help others in future...
As mentioned in Question i was not able to generate the PDF file through shell script on linux machine.After debugging as suggested by "#JNevill" I came to understand that the shell script file was not getting called from .net process itself.
So my first task was to make the shell script file called through .Net Process.
After lots of searching through Net and trying out different solutions i got solution at How to perform command in terminal using C#(Mono).
So changed my code of calling the process as follow,
var command = "sh";
var myBatchFile = //Path to shell script file
var argss = $"{myBatchFile} {xmlPath} {xsltPath} {pdfPath}"; //this would become "/home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/ApacheFOP/transform.sh /home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/XMLFolder/test.xml /home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/XSLTFolder/Certificate.xsl /home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/PDFFolder/test.pdf"
var processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
processInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
processInfo.FileName = command; // 'sh' for bash
processInfo.Arguments = argss; // The Script name
process = Process.Start(processInfo); // Start that process.
var outPut = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
process.WaitForExit();
After changing the code ,the ".sh" file got executed and i was able to generate the PDF file.
Also script of the ".sh" file i.e. (transform.sh) which was calling Apache FOP file i.e. "FOP.sh" also needed to be changed.
Initially code was
./fop -xml $1 -xsl $2 -pdf $3
Which i changed as follow,(Change was to give full path of the FOP file)
/home/ubuntu/psa/PdfGeneration/ApacheFolder/ApacheFOP/fop -xml $1 -xsl $2 -pdf $3
Late answer, but for me, it worked just by setting the RedirectStandardOutput to true and changing the FileName property like this:
processInfo.FileName = #"C:\Program Files\Git\git-bash.exe";
processInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
I have a scenario where i would like to compress my folder due to presence of large number of files present in them using SSIS 2008. Consider it like i have one Source Folder and one Target Folder and while moving files from "SRC" to "TGT" the folder must be compressed in destination.Now feasible option for doing this i think is SSIS Script task ,since I cannot use Execute Process task due to restriction of using any third party software like 7z/Winrar etc.But i am not able to implement this even after using SSIS Script Component.Tried many online solutions but it did not work.How can i implement such thing using SSIS 2008?
You can use the ZipPackage class if you are targeting .Net 3 and above. Complete example here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.packaging.zippackage.aspx
There is also a ZipArchive class, example here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.compression.ziparchive(v=vs.110).aspx
I did this exercise , I created a Script Task to perform compression of a folder by using the compression provided by Windows;
the folder name can dynamically change.
In this way it is not necessary to use third party software like 7z/Winrar etc..
You need to provide to the Script Task the folder to be zipped and the name of the compressed folder as ReadOnlyVariables (to be added in the tab ReadOnlyVariables)
These two variables must be defined in the Variables tab (String type) of the package and can be changed dynamically through a cycle (eg. for each)
I use these two variables:
sFolderCompressed - the folder '.zip' that you want to obtain eg. \\XX.XX.XX.XX\C$\.....\folderCompressed
sFolderSource - the source folder containing the files affected eg. \\XX.XX.XX.XX\C$\.....\folderSource
(*)
The script is made using c#, choose Script Language: Microsoft Visual C# 2008
This is the code to be added in the Main method:
public void Main()
{
// TODO: Add your code here
try
{
// variables used in process
string l_sFolderCompressed = (string)Dts.Variables["User::sFolderCompressed"].Value;
string l_sFolderSource = (string)Dts.Variables["User::sFolderSource"].Value;
string l_sCommand = "zip -j " + l_sFolderCompressed + " " + l_sFolderSource + "/*";
// create the ProcessStartInfo using "cmd" as the program to be run,
// and "/C " as the parameters.
// Incidentally, /C tells cmd that we want it to execute the command that follows,
// and then exit.
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/C " + l_sCommand);
// The following commands are needed to redirect the standard output.
// This means that it will be redirected to the Process.StandardOutput StreamReader.
procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
// Do not create the black window.
procStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
// Now we create a process, assign its ProcessStartInfo and start it
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
// Get the output into a string
string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
// Possibly display the command output.
}
catch (Exception objException)
{
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Failure;
// Log the exception
}
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
}
You can also manage a single file
"cmd", "/C zip -j c:\\...\file.zip c:\\..\file.txt");
I hope can help
I capture audio files in the wave format in my Microsoft Surface application. Now for file size reasons, I'd like to convert the wave file into a mp3 file. I read in the Internet that a good possibility to do that is using lame.
But how can I call this exe file from my application? and how can I include it into my application?
Use Process class to call an external application:
string lameEXE = #"C:\path_of_lame\lame.exe";
string lameArgs = "-V2";
string wavFile = #"C:\my_wavs\input.wav";
string mp3File = #"C:\my_mp3s\output.mp3";
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
process.StartInfo.FileName = lameEXE;
process.StartInfo.Arguments = string.Format(
"{0} {1} {2}",
lameArgs,
wavFile,
mp3File);
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = process.ExitCode;
You can call an executable from .NET by using the System.Diagnostics.Process class and related classes - see here for the documentation.
Lame has pretty robust command line arguments, which can be found here. You can pass command line arguments to the Process using the ProcessStartInfo.Arguments property.
public void mciConvertWavMP3(string fileName, bool waitFlag)
{
//maxLen is in ms (1000 = 1 second)
string outfile= "-b 32 --resample 22.05 -m m \"" + pworkingDir+fileName + "\" \"" + pworkingDir + fileName.Replace(".wav",".mp3") + "\"";
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
psi.FileName = "\"" + pworkingDir + "lame.exe" + "\"";
psi.Arguments = outfile;
//psi.WorkingDirectory = pworkingDir;
psi.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Minimized;
System.Diagnostics.Process p = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
if (waitFlag)
{
p.WaitForExit();
// wait for exit of called application
}
}
Above code taken from here .
Depending on the usage, you can incorporate a Process.StartInfo object, control properties such as ShellExecute and also redirect any output from the application to (say) a log file or UI component.
To bundle the exe with your project, check this question from stackoverflow out. Personally, I'd go with the first suggestions:
There are several ways you could
accomplish this. First, you should add
program.exe to the project. You would
do this by right-clicking the project
in Visual Studio, and selecting Add >
Existing Item... Select program.exe,
and it will appear in the project.
Viewing its properties, you can set
"Copy to Output Directory" to "Copy
Always", and it will appear in your
output directory beside your
application.
If you stick to the above method, then reference lame.exe relatively ('....\Tools\Lame.exe' for example).
Finally, according to the official lame site : RareWares offers several compiled LAME versions, including modified versions featuring special functionality.
There is a DLL version of LAME, I would be surprised if you can't find a VB or C# example using it. Check this discussion thread: http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/31294459/-lameencdll-and-vbnet.aspx