ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Testing > Events and actions > Setting up an action > Specifying the effect of an action > Running a program

Running a program

Introduction

When an action is triggered by a procedure, you can choose that one of the action's effects should be to Run a program. In this case, you will be asked to enter the program's Command line, Parameters and Run options using the Run program window shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. The Run program window, which is used to run an external program or Windows command line.

Details

The command line is usually just the path name of the program you want to run, for example:

c:\windows\notepad.exe

The easiest way to enter this is to use the Browse button to select the relevant program file.

As well as specifying the program to run, you can also specify parameters such as:

mynotes.txt

In this case, the command will cause the notepad program to open the file mynotes.txt

If you want the action to perform multiple commands, then you can write a Windows batch file and then have the command line run that. For full details about Windows command lines, batch files, etc., refer to your Windows documentation.

The Run options allow you to specify how the program will be displayed:

Run normally

The program will be run in a normal window, in the same way that it would appear if you started it by double-clicking on its icon. This usually means that the program will open on top of ANY-maze. If the program is a command or batch file, a new console window will open in which the command/batch file will run. In this case, when the command or batch file ends, the console window will close - this usually means you briefly see a window appear and disappear, so in this case it is better to use one of the other options.

Run minimized

The program will be run in a minimized window - so it will typically just appear as a new running program in the Windows task bar. ANY-maze will continue to be the top-most, active window.

Run without a window

This option only works if the program to run is a command or batch file (if it is a normal Windows program, then this option is the same as Run normally). In this case, the command or batch file will run without opening a console window. This is useful when the command or batch file runs quickly, as it effectively just runs in the background.

Running a program

Introduction

Details

See also: