I have a question with regard to linking to external webpages from a clarion browse/tree or form. I would like to create a related table to the main table with only tree fields;
id - primary key
description - string - description (of link/webpage and a
weblink - string to hold the hyperlink.
In this table I would store additional links which the user can select and the link would open in the default web browser with the relevant linked page. There is no need to show it in a clarion window.
Can this be done easily with a command/embed in clarion, or do I need to obtain some 3rd party to be able to do this?
you can use standard (cla10 for sure) procedure from MODULE(‘cwutil.clw’) OpenUrlLink(STRING urlLink,BYTE forceHttp=1,<STRING path>, <STRING params>),ULONG,PROC
IMO the “,1” wait for close is a bad idea. It can confuse the user because they can click on your Clarion window and it will show “Not Responding” and paint gray and appear hung. If you make it wait long enough it may actually hang. The confused user may shut it down in task man.
If I want to wait I usually open a Window() that says “waiting for you to finish with xxxx” and have a Cancel button. You cannot use RUN() for that you have to use CreateProcess() or ShellExecuteEx() so you can get a Handle to the Process. With that hProcess you can GetProcessExitCode() to see if it is STILL_ACTIVE (259). I’ll check for Exit<>259 in a Timer, and if they try to Cancel warn them. I have never tried this with a URL to know if a browser gives a unique hProcess for that page. I would probably run IE or Chrome.
A quick-and-dirty way would be to open a Window that explains “You must complete the Webpage xxx. Don’t click here or the program will show ‘Not Responding’ and may hang”. So when it appears hung they know why.
BTW in C11 they added the “Hot Light” Windows System Color for URLs. I think the Window Designer does not handle it right and changes the it to the system RGB color of light blue, so best to set Prop:FontColor at runtime to have the user’s theme.
COLOR:HotLight EQUATE (8000001AH) !Color for a hyperlink or hot-tracked item.
I have a System Colors tool on Git. You’ll see Hot Light on the right side middle:
This code is attached to a button in the form for testing. Most likely I will attached to a browse.
I tested the code with opening a webpage as you suggested. This works fine. But not with a document path from the database. The path is correct in the form and stored in a string.
Source Code below
! Opening the webpage works fine with this code
! Local string variable document(250)
Document=clip(‘www.vg.no’)
run(Document)
!========================
! The code below doesnt work
Document=clip(?tblDoc:FileLocation) !The use variable from the form. It is correctly displayed in the form.
! I use a message box to test the content of the variable ‘document’. The message box shows the number’16’ instead of the content. Why?
message(Document)
run(Document)
! Therefore it will not work. Why does it show a number instead of the ?tblDoc:FileLocation?
Because ?tblDoc:FileLocation is a number, usually it is a number of the control in WINDOW structure. To get a contents you can call CONTENTS(?tblDoc:FileLocation)
If the ENTRY control (in your case ?tblDoc:FileLocation) represents data field (for example a field from a table, in your case tblDoc:FileLocation), then you can use field contents: Document=tblDoc:FileLocation
I do it a bit differently than others because my needs are a tiny bit more complex.
Browser FILE,DRIVER('TOPSPEED'),RECLAIM,PRE(BRO),CREATE,BINDABLE,THREAD
NameKey KEY(BRO:Name),NOCASE
Record RECORD
Name CSTRING(21) ! Browser name as shown to the user
FileSpec CSTRING(256)
END
END
WebQ QUEUE(WebQType)
Name CSTRING(61)
Type BYTE !1=URL, 2=Email
Tip LIKE(URL:Notes)
Address LIKE(URL:URL)
Browser LIKE(URL:Browser) !The full file spec to a browser executable or blank for the default browser
END
In EVENT:AlertKey for ?WebQ
IF ?WebQ{PROPLIST:MouseDownZone} = LISTZONE:Field
LPR:Choice = ?WebQ{PROPLIST:MouseDownRow}
GET(WebQ, LPR:Choice)
OpenEmailURL(WebQ.Type, WebQ.Browser, WebQ.Address)
POST(EVENT:CloseWindow)
END
OpenEmailURL PROCEDURE (BYTE pType, STRING pBrowser, STRING pAddress) ! Declare Procedure
CODE
SHX:Operation = 'open'
SHX:Directory = ''
IF pType = EQ:WebURL
IF pBrowser
Access:Browser.Open
Access:Browser.UseFile
BRO:Name = CLIP(pBrowser)
Access:Browser.Fetch(BRO:NameKey)
SHX:Document = BRO:FileSpec
SHX:Parameter = CLIP(pAddress)
Access:Browser.Close
ELSE
SHX:Document = CLIP(pAddress)
SHX:Parameter = ''
END
ELSE !EQ:WebEmail
SHX:Document = CLIP(pAddress)
SHX:Parameter = ''
END
ShellExecute(GetDesktopWindow(), SHX:Operation, SHX:Document, SHX:Parameter, SHX:Directory, BCS_SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED)
I changed from GetDesktopWindow() to pass Zero for Parent window to ShellExecute(0,…). Its been a long time so I cannot recall if it was because a Parent simply worked fine when Zero, or that GetDesktopWindow() was improper, or both. MSDN clearly says passing a Null Parent window is fine.
A quick search turned up Ray Chen saying its bad idea to use GetDesktopWindow() but does not mention ShellExecute specifically.
I have had GetDesktopWindow() fail on certain client machines. I forget the particulars, but it was on machines with a very strict group policy in place and no accessibility for diagnostics.
By default, there are three desktops in the interactive window station: Default, ScreenSaver, and Winlogon.
The Default desktop is created when Winlogon starts the initial process as the logged-on user. At that point, the Default desktop becomes active, and it is used to interact with the user.
Whenever a secure screen saver activates, the system automatically switches to the ScreenSaver desktop, which protects the processes on the default desktop from unauthorized users. Unsecured screen savers run on Winsta0*Default*.
The Winlogon desktop is active while a user logs on. The system switches to the default desktop when the shell indicates that it is ready to display something, or after thirty seconds, whichever comes first. During the user’s session, the system switches to the Winlogon desktop when the user presses the CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence, or when the User Account Control (UAC) dialog box is open.
The Winlogon desktop’s security descriptor allows access to a very restricted set of accounts, including the LocalSystem account. Applications generally do not carry any of these accounts’ SIDs in their tokens and therefore cannot access the Winlogon desktop or switch to a different desktop while the Winlogon desktop is active.
So if the Winlogin desktop/window, UAC window, Ctrl Alt Del window or Secure Screensaver desktop/window is active, ie not the default users interactive desktop/window, then I would imagine the GetDeskTopWindow() api could fail, and I’d expect this api call in services may cause problem as well.
TL;DR I wonder if I witnessed an attack vector by slowing up the windows machine cpu using the bios!
So a few weeks back on a couple of windows machines after a reboot they seemed to really really slow down so much so it took like over 5mins to get to the windows login window to appear and then after logging in, it took like another 5 or 10mins before the taskbar and icons appeared and anything could be done using the desktop.
So I’m wondering if there was some bios malware which slowed the cpu right up, to then exploit this wait 30seconds before automatically activating the windows desktop.
