Topic: Close Active X object not working.

[Lee Mac]

This is a problem that Patrick and I encountered when answering a question over at CADTutor, the OP wanted to open Media Player, play a file, then, once the file had finished playing, close the player.

Patrick kindly provided this example to open the player:

Code: [Select]

(setq video "Une_video.avi")
(setq mp (vlax-create-object "WMPlayer.OCX"))
(vlax-invoke mp 'openPlayer (findfile video))
(vlax-dump-object mp T) ; to look full functions
(vlax-release-object mp)

I tried using this to get the play state of the file to no avail:

Code: [Select]

(setq video "Une_video.avi")
(setq mp (vlax-create-object "WMPlayer.OCX"))
(vlax-invoke mp 'openPlayer (findfile video))
(while
  (progn
    (setq pl (vlax-get-property mp 'playstate))
    (cond ((eq 3 pl)
           (vlax-invoke mp 'close))
          (t t ))))
(vlax-release-object mp)

And Parick later made this "kill" function, which is less than ideal, as a manually calculated delay must also be used:

Code: [Select]

(defun kill(qui / item meth1 meth2 obj WMI)
  (setq WMI (vlax-create-object "WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")
        meth1 (vlax-invoke WMI 'ConnectServer nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil)
        meth2 (vlax-invoke meth1 'ExecQuery "Select * from Win32_Process")
  )
  (vlax-for item meth2
    (and (setq obj (vlax-get item 'CommandLine)) (vl-string-search (strcase qui) (strcase obj))
      (vlax-invoke item 'Terminate)
    )
  )
  (foreach item (list WMI meth1 meth2)
    (vlax-release-object item)
  )
)

;(kill "wmplayer.exe")


I wondered if anyone here could offer any insight as to why we could not use methods/properties of the Active X object, after it is created, it would be much appreciated.   

Thanks,

Lee

[CAB]

I'm throwing darts here.  
Should you be testing for a value of 9 and / or 3 ?
You've probably already seen these.

http://mydev.info/comguide.html

http://kobesearch.cpan.org/htdocs/Wx-ActiveX/Wx/ActiveX/WMPlayer.pm.html

http://search.cpan.org/~mdootson/Wx-ActiveX-0.10/lib/Wx/ActiveX/WMPlayer.pm

[VVA]

Can be still to try taskkill?

Code: [Select]

    (setq ws (vlax-get-or-create-object "wscript.shell"))
    (vlax-invoke-method ws
      "run"
      "taskkill /F /T /IM "wmplayer.exe""
      1
      :vlax-true
      )
(vlax-release-object ws)

[Jeff_M]

I think the problem is that WMP is not reporting the playstate status as you'd expect it to. Here are 2 dumps of the MP object, the first is when it's at rest, the second when it's playing a video:

; IWMPPlayer4: IWMPPlayer4: Public interface.
; Property values:
;   cdromCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPCdromCollection 03231524>
;   closedCaption (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPClosedCaption2 0323154c>
;   controls (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPControls3 03231574>
;   currentMedia = nil
;   currentPlaylist = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPPlaylist 0323159c>
;   dvd (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPDVD 032315c4>
;   enableContextMenu = -1
;   enabled = -1
;   Error (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPError 032315ec>
;   fullScreen = 0
;   isOnline (RO) = -1
;   isRemote (RO) = 0
;   mediaCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPMediaCollection2 03231614>
;   network (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPNetwork 0323163c>
;   openState (RO) = 6
;   playerApplication (RO) = Exception occurred
;   playlistCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPPlaylistCollection 03231664>
;   playState (RO) = 0
;   settings (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPSettings2 032224e0>
;   status (RO) = ""
;   stretchToFit = 0
;   uiMode = "full"
;   URL = ""
;   versionInfo (RO) = "11.0.6002.18005"
;   windowlessVideo = 0
; Methods supported:
;   close ()
;   launchURL (1)
;   newMedia (1)
;   newPlaylist (2)
;   openPlayer (1)
T
_$

nil
_$

; IWMPPlayer4: IWMPPlayer4: Public interface.
; Property values:
;   cdromCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPCdromCollection 0323168c>
;   closedCaption (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPClosedCaption2 032316b4>
;   controls (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPControls3 032316dc>
;   currentMedia = nil
;   currentPlaylist = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPPlaylist 03231704>
;   dvd (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPDVD 0323172c>
;   enableContextMenu = -1
;   enabled = -1
;   Error (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPError 0323378c>
;   fullScreen = 0
;   isOnline (RO) = -1
;   isRemote (RO) = 0
;   mediaCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPMediaCollection2 032337b4>
;   network (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPNetwork 032337dc>
;   openState (RO) = 6
;   playerApplication (RO) = Exception occurred
;   playlistCollection (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPPlaylistCollection 03233804>
;   playState (RO) = 0
;   settings (RO) = #<VLA-OBJECT IWMPSettings2 032224e0>
;   status (RO) = ""
;   stretchToFit = 0
;   uiMode = "full"
;   URL = ""
;   versionInfo (RO) = "11.0.6002.18005"
;   windowlessVideo = 0
; Methods supported:
;   close ()
;   launchURL (1)
;   newMedia (1)
;   newPlaylist (2)
;   openPlayer (1)

Note that there are NO differences bewteen the 2. One would expect SOMETHING to be different, especially the playstate. I'm looking for a solution.....

[Lee Mac]

Yes, I found that result Jeff - but couldn't find a solution.