How to start a macro from windows explorer?

Pieter v. shared this question 21 months ago
Answered

Sometimes I want to use MM as a server. In that case MM should be launched and immediately a dedicated macro should be run.

In MindManager Windows 22 API - Macro Integration and Deployment I found various ways to launch a macro. The first is:

  1. By opening the MMBas file either from Windows Explorer or from the File > Open menu in the macro editor, then running it from there with F5 or Macro > Run.

The first part of this sentence "By opening the MMBas file ... from Windows Explorer" looks promissing.

However:

  1. MM desktop opens without my regular start-up document (OK), flashes 1-2 times an empty window at the position I normally see the macro editor and then does not do anything anymore (apparently).
  2. I found out that the macro editor indeed has been opened with my macro file, but hidden behind the MM desktop.
  3. I still have to select the editor window and press F5 to launch the macro.

Apart from some anomalies (flashes should be avoided, editor window should be on foreground, documentation should avoid old MMBas extension as current extension is mmbas), my question is: is there way to have my macro run directly.


Thanks,

Pieter van der Hijden

Replies (1)

photo
1

Hello Pieter

MindManager probably sets the main window active because it is still initialising after it loads the macro. It will also open a macro file if passed on the command line, but I am not aware of any command line switches to execute a macro.

It should be possible to use a windows utility to send F5 to MindManager but it might be difficult to set the macro editor as the active window. Another method would be to write a Windows application that finds or creates the MindManager COM server, and waits for it to finish initialising. Then you can execute a macro file by calling it through the API instead of the command line.

I emailed you about App Studio a few days ago, which would be a different solution.

---