Close Acrobat "on the fly"

[Juan Pablo González]

I'm developing a program to create PDF's on the fly, but I'm not able to close the Acrobat Window that gets opened (Not by me, but by the process itself)... I couldn't find any API call to do that, is this possible ?

[NateO]

Wonder how the process opens it. Perhaps with createobject one can create and terminate the instance as in the following link:

http://forum.planetebook.com/archive/3164.htm

Using the class name (with the reader at least) is not too much fun, it's dynamic, changing with every instance.

[Juan Pablo González]

This is what's happening... you create a PDF basically by printing a document. But then, since i'm using Adobe Distiller, it opens Adobe Writer, and it creates the document just fine... but it creates it in this particular location that I don't want it ! so, I copy it where I want, but then, I want to kill the old (original) file... but I can't ! why ? Adobe is STILL open, and using it ! sucks, right ?

That code from PlanetPDF (I got the other part that I'm using from there too !) looks great, thanks. I do need to join them all after creating them !

[Ivan F Moala]

On 2002-05-23 15:11, Juan Pablo G. wrote:
This is what's happening... you create a PDF basically by printing a document. But then, since i'm using Adobe Distiller, it opens Adobe Writer, and it creates the document just fine... but it creates it in this particular location that I don't want it ! so, I copy it where I want, but then, I want to kill the old (original) file... but I can't ! why ? Adobe is STILL open, and using it ! sucks, right ?

That code from PlanetPDF (I got the other part that I'm using from there too !) looks great, thanks. I do need to join them all after creating them !

Hi Juan....did you get it to close ??

How have you created the App ??

You could either use the SendMessage function which sends the specified message (control constants) to the window, this calls the window procedure for the window and doesn't return until the window procedure has processed the message so it is in effect synchronous, or
the PostMessage function which posts a message to a thread’s message queue and returns immediately - asyncronous - try using this one.

Nate is correct in that getting the Class name for that you get
a dynamic name everytime
eg Afx:400000:8:148e:0:408f,
Afx:400000:8:148e:0:4757,
Afx:400000:8:148e:0:4727

You can however look for just the partial name Str...
I beleive there has being a thread on this to which I posted.
There were a couple of solutions to this was supplied, I have
amended it here.

You can change it as required.....the sTitle or Caption of the
PDF file is the key.

But Postmsg should do it.
eg.

Private Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

'// Close window Constant
Const WM_CLOSE = &H10

All you then need is the handle to the window so

call PostMessage PDF_WindowHandle, WM_CLOSE,0,0


Actually, now that I think of it the Html addin has a routine
to get the windows...in this case it maximizes it, all you need
to do is change it to send the WM_CLOSE const instead.

Ay way here is the routine to get the Class name, window handle to that
App and then Close it.

Option Explicit

Option Compare Text



Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

Declare Function GetClassName Lib "user32" Alias "GetClassNameA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long) As Long

Declare Function EnumWindows Lib "user32" (ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long



Const WM_CLOSE = &H10



Private psAppNameContains As String

Private pbFound As Boolean

Private sTitle As String



Public Function AppTitleByStringPart(StringPart As String) As Boolean

Dim lRet As Long

psAppNameContains = StringPart

lRet = EnumWindows(AddressOf CheckForInstance, 0)

AppTitleByStringPart = pbFound

pbFound = False

End Function



Private Function CheckForInstance(ByVal lhWnd As Long, ByVal _

lParam As Long) As Long

Dim lRet As Long

Dim iNew As Integer



If Trim(psAppNameContains = "") Then

    CheckForInstance = False

    Exit Function

End If



sTitle = Space(255)

lRet = GetWindowText(lhWnd, sTitle, 255)

sTitle = StripNull(sTitle)



If InStr(sTitle, psAppNameContains) > 0 Then

    CheckForInstance = False

    pbFound = True

Else

    CheckForInstance = True

End If



End Function



Private Function StripNull(ByVal InString As String) As String

Dim iNull As Integer

If Len(InString) > 0 Then

    iNull = InStr(InString, vbNullChar)

    Select Case iNull

        Case 0

            StripNull = InString

        Case 1

            StripNull = ""

        Case Else

            StripNull = Left$(InString, iNull - 1)

    End Select

End If

End Function



Sub GetClass()

Dim WndHdl As Long, sWndTitle As String, RetVal As Long, lpClassName As String



sWndTitle = InputBox("Enter at least one word from the Window Title:")



If sWndTitle <> "" Then

    AppTitleByStringPart (sWndTitle)

    sWndTitle = sTitle

    WndHdl = FindWindow(vbNullString, sWndTitle)

    lpClassName = Space(256)

    RetVal = GetClassName(WndHdl, lpClassName, 256)

    MsgBox "Classname for Window Caption" & "[" & sWndTitle & "]" & vbLf & vbLf & _

        " = " & Left$(lpClassName, RetVal) & vbCr & _

        "WindowHandle:=" & WndHdl

Else

    MsgBox "No match found for " & sTitle & ""

End If





PostMessage WndHdl, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0



End Sub

_________________
Kind Regards,
Ivan F Moala From the City of Sails


[ This Message was edited by: Ivan F Moala on 2002-05-23 22:20 ]

[Juan Pablo González]

Thanks Ivan, see ? told you, you know your API !

I'll give it a shot right away... I did find the SendMessage function, but didn't know where to look for the message constant to close the window, how do you know that ? APIGuide doesn't have them, and (obviously) neither AllApi.net (Because they're the same !)

[Mark O'Brien]

Another site I've used is

http://www.vbapi.com

Quite a nice site, though it's no longer maintained.

[Ivan F Moala]

On 2002-05-24 07:01, Juan Pablo G. wrote:
Thanks Ivan, see ? told you, you know your API !

I'll give it a shot right away... I did find the SendMessage function, but didn't know where to look for the message constant to close the window, how do you know that ? APIGuide doesn't have them, and (obviously) neither AllApi.net (Because they're the same !)

The Const should be list in the WinAPI.txt
All window msg constants start with WM.
In fact it wasn't till I really had a good
look, while playing around that I realised that that was how the conventioning went eg.

Public Const WM_CLOSE = &H10
Public Const WM_ACTIVATE = &H6
Public Const WM_ACTIVATEAPP = &H1C
Public Const WM_PAINT = &HF
Public Const WM_PASTE = &H302
Public Const WM_SETFONT = &H30
Public Const WM_SETFOCUS = &H7
Public Const WM_SETCURSOR = &H20

Winapi.txt...forgot where I got it, But I thought you had VB6, I think it's gets installed with it, although I believe it misses on a lot of other API calls and consts ??

Most Sendmessage API examples post this const
as it's the most common one ie to close a window.

Good luck....wouldn't mind see the code for the PDF file.....sounds handy to have.

[Mark O'Brien]

I think WinAPI.txt is the one that you need to download from microsoft.

If I recall correctly, the Dan Appleman book has this on the CD and has his own modified API file.

[Juan Pablo González]

Sure ! (About the PDF code)... and it's really cool ! you (will) define which files (Word and Excel) to convert, in which order and where to put it.

[Ivan F Moala]

On 2002-05-24 07:55, Juan Pablo G. wrote:
Sure ! (About the PDF code)... and it's really cool ! you (will) define which files (Word and Excel) to convert, in which order and where to put it.

Hey that sounds GREAT...