Loading a file by double clicking through an existing EXE

[alecjcook]

I have a Main LabVIEW application running. It is an .exe. It has a text editor in it.

Before the application is loaded, I can double click on a text file and get applicationArgs to read the file and populate my text editor.

If the application is already running, how would I get this path information into my application so that it can be loaded into the text editor?
I have tried creating a second LabVIEW .exe that will take the applicationArgs and pass it over a network queue into my Main application, and while this works, the second .exe takes about 5 seconds to launch, which is insufficient.
Any thoughts?

Many thanks, Alec

[crossrulz]

Maybe you can handle a drag-and-drop event to populate the editor's contents with the contents of the file that was dropped.

[alecjcook]

Hmmm, Only if I had a Path Control there.

Also, Drag and Drop ain't no Double Click 😕

Ta.

[cbutcher]

Perhaps you can register for an OS event triggered by double clicking, and then filter the events? What are you running on? (Windows?)

[alecjcook]

LabVIEW on Windows, yes.

[alecjcook]

Ho would I register for an OS level event? I thought as high level I could get was VI Server?

[cbutcher]

My suggestion would be looking into functions like this: WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK

You'll have to either use the Call Library Function Node with libraries probably located in the Windows directory, or if you need a bunch of functions and have any peculiar data structures required, I'd suggest writing some code in C/C++ and the making it more accessible to your LabVIEW needs.

You can additionally generate events in your own C code for LabVIEW's Event Structure - I can post an example I've written later but you can probably google for the idea. This might be helpful if you do write some other library. You can use the entry point to try and register for the Windows OS events you need, but be careful because you're not allowed to load any non-loaded libraries in that part of the DLL.

If you can at all avoid it, you'd be better doing so. Perhaps you can use the second application you have to load data in, and have it always running? I'm not sure exactly how you're loading these, or how your application works, so it's hard to say.