Help with creating tool

[Thew]

Hi

i am new to visual basic. So i am gonna need some help creating a tool.

what i want:

A tool with 1 text field, and 3 buttons.

If you press button 1, there will be a prompt box, to select a file (all files are clickable). If you select one, the content of the file will be shown in the text area. Then you can edit the text. Then when you press button 2, the file will be saved. When you didnt selected a file with button 1, there will be created a new file. When you press button 3, you will go to a website.

Now i already created the tool itself, but now the code.
Thats where i need help with.

I already found some code for button 3:

Private Sub Command3_Click()
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start ("http://www.thewnetwork.tk/")
End Sub
 

but that didnt work. it gave this error:

Runtime error 424
Object required

i am using VB6

Thanks,
Thew

[Guido Geurs]

This opens IE to the URL=

Shell "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://www.thewnetwork.tk", vbMaximizedFocus

[Thew]

With is the problem: Not everyone has IE on his PC or has IE on drive C:\. For example, i have IE on drive D:\.

[TamusJRoyce]

I believe the command you are looking for is Shell and not Start?

Shell("http://www.thewnetwork.tk/", vbNormalFocus)

But ggeu had the right idea. IE isn't always located in the C drive either.

[Guido Geurs]

If the settings are on each PC different, than You have to save them in a file.
Attached is an example how to do this.

[TamusJRoyce]

qqeu, have you used environment variables before?

try:

Shell "$ProgramFiles\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://www.thewnetwork.tk", vbMaximizedFocus
 

But this still doesn't open the default web browser if it isn't IE, or IE is uninstalled (some versions of windows 7 don't come with it installed!).

Any ideas, qqeu? I'm assuming Shell("http://www.thewnetwork.tk/", vbNormalFocus) doesn't work as documented.

[Guido Geurs]

Because the Explorer is not always the same and on different places, You have to save this path and filename of the browser in a file (settings.ini) with the command "Com_Settings" and the form "ExplorerSettings".

In the settings.ini file must be for You:
"D:\.......\IEXPLORER.EXE"
For an other PC: maybe= "C:\progr...\firefox.exe"

At the start of the program, the setting will be loaded into the textbox of the form "ExplorerSettings".

The line =

   Shell ExplorerSettings.Text_ExplorerPrg & " " & "http://www.thewnetwork.tk", vbMaximizedFocus

uses the text from this textbox to open the dedicated Explorer (IE, FireFox, ...) and the URL.

[TamusJRoyce]

Using a .ini file you have to modify doesn't seem helpful enough.

There was a time where you had to search the windows registry to find the location and application you wished to execute. But that was back with Win16 API for Windows 3.1. Otherwise, the only other choice was using an .ini file approach.

I don't believe that NT based Windows has these global .ini files like settings.ini around anymore. If they do, they are legacy and can't be considered correct or to contain the information you may want.

But a better solution would be to find the command to tell Windows to open the website in question (Win95 and above), and Windows will choose the correct browser.

Otherwise, maybe someone else has some idea's?

[TamusJRoyce]

I knew if I thought about it long enough I would remember it...

Shell("rundll32.exe shell32.dll,ShellExec_RunDLL http://www.thewnetwork.tk/", vbNormalFocus)
 

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/codelib/shell/shellex.htm is an article that gives an example of importing shell32.dll and using ShellExec directly for vb6, if you would rather not rely on rundll32.exe

[TamusJRoyce]

This rundll32.exe trick doesn't seem to be working for windows 7. Does anyone know one that will? or I will post one if I find it.

Ah. Well, the rundll works in a pinch if you only need to support <= windows xp, but System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://www.thewnetwork.tk/") is what you typically want.