- - - - - - - - - - - EVENTMAN.EXE vs 1.0 Notes (03/03/95) - - - - - - - - Thanks for checking out SRO's Eventman! EVENTMAN is SHAREWARE - NOT FREEWARE. If you use it for an extended period (like 30 days) you are expected to register. If you do, you'll receive the latest copy of the program without the annoying guilt screen. And enhanced, printed documentation. The $10.00 registration fee can be sent to: SRO SYSTEMS P.O. Box 5028 Blue Jay, CA 92317 Or you can register on Compuserve's shareware registration forum. Print the "Register.txt" file for order info. REQUIREMENTS ------------ EVENTMAN.EXE is a Windows 3.1 task scheduler. It is written in Visual Basic Professional vs 3.0. It is designed to run on any 100% IBM compatible PC with a 386 or better CPU and at least 4 megabytes of ram. Eventman itself uses only 180K or ram and about 2-3% of system resources when idle. However, when running events, your system must be able to load the event program, and Event Manager will just about double in size. THIS PROGRAM REQUIRES VBRUN300.DLL TO BE IN YOUR WINDOWS\SYSTEM DIRECTORY. IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER RECENT VISUAL BASIC PROGRAMS, YOU PROBABLY HAVE IT ALREADY. OR YOU CAN UPLOAD IT FROM MOST BBS's. INSTALLATION ------------ Installing is easy. Just run INSTALL.EXE in Program Manager or File Manager. All functions (with the exception of Keystrokes) are pretty self explanatory, and the help bar will tell you almost anything you need to know. However, you should read the following so you know how Event Manager works before you let it loose to start running your programs. ______________________________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION ----------- The file EVENTMAN.EXE is a Windows 3.1 task scheduler. Its purpose is to let your computer do things (like download files or perform backups) while you are away (or asleep). You can schedule up to 21 tasks to be run during the week. Each task can have a command line parameter to specify options or load a file. You can also have Event Manager send keystrokes to you programs to make them do ANYTHING you could do sitting in front of them. What is an "EVENT" ------------------ An "EVENT" in Event Manager is a Program (.EXE, .COM, .BAT or .PIF) set to run on a specific day and time, with certain user definable options. See "EVENT EDITOR" below for a description of event options. Startup Screen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Button Bar Duplicates some of the most frequently used menu functions. 2) File Name of the currently loaded event data file. 3) Current Day/Time There to let you know the current system time and day of week as set in Windows' Control Panel. 4) Scheduled Events The event list shows the descriptive titles assigned to your events. You can copy, paste and clear events using the "Event Menu", or the standard Windows "Ctl C", "Ctl V" and "Ctl X" commands. To edit an event, click the "Edit Event" button, double click on the event title, or choose "Edit" from the "Event Menu". You can run any event immediatly by clicking the "Run NOW" button or by choosing "Run" from the "Event Menu". 5) Enabled List The small list on the right shows the enabled on/off status of each event. Double click the list to enable and disable individual events. You can still immediatly run an event with the "Run NOW" button even if the event's enabled status is set to "Off". 6) Eventman Startup Sets whether Eventman loads normal or minimized. 7) Help Bar The help bar at the bottom of the screen gives you instant information on most of the controls and buttons you see on the screen. Anything you move the mouse over in the startup or editor screens will be described here. In addition to help, Eventman will also show here any errors that occur during processing. See "ERRORS" at the end of this file for more information. Event Editor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Event Editor is where you set all the options for running your event. You can reach this screen by double clicking an event, clicking the "Edit Event" button, or selecting "Edit" from the Event Menu. 1) Event This is a descriptive title for your event. It's the title that appears in the main screen's event list. 2) Event Day This sets the day of week you want your event to run. You can make your event run on a single day, or have it run every day. Event Manager checks Windows for the current weekday, and displays it at the top of the startup screen. Be sure your computer's clock is set correctly! 3) Event Time Sets the time to run your event based on a 24 hour clock. Event manager checks Windows for the current time every 1/10th a second, and displays it at the top of the startup screen. 4) Max Length This places a limit on how long your event will be allowed to run. You can set the interval anywhere from 1 minute to 4 hours. A setting or "00" will disable the timer, and the event will run untill it ends itself. The timer starts after the event program is loaded, and after keystrokes sent to the program have been processed. After the timer expires, Event Manager ends the program whether it's finished or not! This may be helpfull if your event logs on an online service, and you want to limit your phone bill, but beware. If your event is doing a backup or system maintainence, early termination could be dangerous to your system. Your best bet is to use an application that can shut itself off when done! NOTE 1: TO TERMINATE A PROGRAM, EVENTMAN SENDS THE "ALT+F4" KEY SEQUENCE. NEARLY ALL WINDOWS PROGRAMS CAN BE CLOSED THIS WAY. IF A PROGRAM YOU USE CAN'T, DISABLE THE EVENT TIMER AND SEND THE EXIT KEYS AT THE END OF THE KEYSTROKE SEQUENCE (explained below). NOTE 2: EVENT MANAGER CANNOT TERMINATE DOS PROGRAMS, IF YOU RUN DOS EVENTS, THEY SHOULD BE "SELF TERMINATING" AND THE EVENT TIMER SHOULD BE SET TO "00" SO EVENTMAN DOESN'T TRY TO SHUT THEM DOWN. 9a) Program The set button in this box lets you choose the program this event will run. You can choose .EXE, .COM, .BAT or .PIF files. Event Manager is designed to run Windows applications, however, Dos programs can also run with a few limits you MUST OBSERVE. Event Manager cannot "Send Keystrokes" to a Dos program, and it cannot terminate a Dos Event. If you select a Dos program as an event, disable (set to 00) the "Max Length" timer, and pick a program that will "self terminate" and return you to Windows after it's done. 9b) Window Style Window style sets the way the program loads. The "Normal", "Minimized" and "Maximized" settings work just like the controls in the top left corner of most Windows applications. If you use any of these three modes to run your event, Event Manager stays in the background and lets the program do it's work. NO OTHER scheduled EVENTS will be run. The "Background" setting is different, it makes the program load as a minimized icon at the bottom of the screen. When run in this way, a program is launched and forgotten by Event Manager. It continues to run in the background untill it's finished. OTHER scheduled EVENTS WILL be run. 10) Command Line This is an optional parameter that is placed after the program name on the command line. Many programs can load a data file or run with options you specified on the command line. See the program's documentation for command line options. 11) Keystrokes OK, heres the big one! This option lets you send keystrokes to a program as if they were entered at the keyboard. If your event program is capable of running by itself, you should never need this function. Unfortunately, most programs can't do anything without user input. Windows comes with a macro recorder (recorder.exe) for just this purpose. In fact, if you know how to use recorder, you can launch your macros from Event Manager and have the extra ability to use mouse functions to run your programs. Below are guidelines for using the Keystrokes option to run your programs. NOTE : You CANNOT send keystrokes to a Dos application, or to any program set to run in a "BACKGROUND" or "MINIMIZED Window. A) KNOW THE PROGRAM! This is the most important! You must know what keystrokes the program responds to if you want to send "key codes" to it. Run the program, and note what keys you press. If you normally use the mouse, look at the underlined letters on the menus/buttons as well as the key combinations to the right of menu commands to know what keystrokes are required. If there are items with no underlines or key combinations, you can usually use the arrow or tab keys to get to them. B) KEYCODES NOTE: Event Manager has a keystroke reference screen. You reach it by double clicking the word "Keystrokes" in the "Event Edit" screen. Once you know what keys it takes to make the program do something, you turn those keystrokes into "KEYCODES". Don't be intimidated, many key- codes are exactly what you type on the keyboard. Here are the rules : - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * The alphanumeric charachters (A-Z, 0-9) stay just the way they are. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * "Action keys" and F-Keys (keys that "do things") are used by enclosing the "key name" in braces. # of times to press them goes to the right. Example: {TAB} {TAB 3} {ESC} {F10} {UP} {DOWN 4} {LEFT} {ENTER} The "ENTER" key can be specified either with {ENTER} or ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * The "ALT" "SHIFT" & "CONTROL" keys "modify" other keys. These have special symbols. Alt = % - Shift = + - Control = ^. Example : ^C is "Control+C" which usually means "COPY" %E is "ALT+E" which will usually access the edit menu. These "modifier" codes modify the immediatly following key. To show several keys held down at once, you enclose the "modified" keys in parentheses (). EXAMPLE : If you had an application that does something when you press "ALT", "SHIFT", and "F2" simultaneosly, you would use the following : %(+{F2}) If you want to use any of the special symbols (~,%,^ or +) as text instead of their "code" meanings, enclose them in braces. EXAMPLE : To put the charachters "100% + 10" into Notepad, then print them, you could use the following : 100{%}{+}10%FP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C) COMMA'S Event Manager uses comma's to separate commands. You can specify any number of keys to send to a program, and in most cases, the program will be able to process them all at once. However, if you need to give the program time to finish something before sending more keystrokes, insert a comma in the keystroke sequence. Eventman will wait one second for each comma it finds. This is also helpfull when testing your keystrokes as it allows you to see a menu getting highlighted before the next key is sent. NOTE : Event Manager see's the comma as an "END OF COMMAND" charachter You must also put a comma at the end of the keystroke-sequence or the last charachters will be ignored! COMMA'S CANNOT BE USED IN ANY OTHER WAY! REMEMBER NOT USE COMMA'S IN TEXT YOU ARE PASTING INTO AN APPLICATION. D) DELAY TIME The delay time control in the keystroke window sets the amount of time eventman waits after the application loads to send keystrokes to it. Some programs take quite a while to load, and will not accept commands untill the loading process is finished. If you find that keystrokes don't get to your application, increase this time. 11) Kill Program This feature lets you select a program for Event Manager to close before running the event. If you have a program that might conflict with the scheduled event, Event Manager will end the program and reload it after the event has finished. To do this, you must specify both the "Window Title", and program name. Event manager finds the program to end by its "Window Title". This is the name that appears in Windows Task List (run by double clicking on the desktop) and below the program's icon when it's minimized. When the event finishes, Event Manager will load the program selected with the "set" button. ERRORS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since Event Manager is meant to be run unattended, it doesn't do a whole lot of good for it to generate error message boxes like most programs. If it did, no events would be executed until the user hit the "OK" button. When Eventman encounters (harmless) errors either in its own processing or in the way it was configured by the user, it shows them in an overlay on the help bar at the bottom of the startup screen. Errors are displayed this box (even if Eventman is closed) and are saved in the eventman.ini file. They don't go away until the user double clicks on the error message to clear it. Errors without error numbers are USER errors. Check your settings and try again! If you get an error message with an error number ahead of it, DON'T FREAK OUT, ALL PROGRAMS GENERATE ERRORS, (they just don't always tell you!) If you run into an error that stops or crashes eventman, then FREAK OUT (or at least let us know so we can fix it)! DISCLAIMER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Heed this warning. The very nature of Task Scheduling software makes it more particularily dangerous than most any other kind of program. It is designed to unleash processes on a PC unchecked by the user. TEST ALL OF YOUR EVENTS BEFORE LETTING THEM RUN WHEN YOU'RE NOT THERE! Due to the variety of software and harware that may be present on a user's PC, SRO SYSTEMS makes NO WARRANTEE NOR GUARANTEE OF ANY KIND. SRO SYSTEMS will not be held responsible for anything that might happen due to the use, or misuse of this software. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you would like to : A) Register Eventman B) Receive product information C) Give us comments or suggestions Please call, write, fax or email us. You can reach us at: SRO SYSTEMS P.O. Box 5028 Blue Jay, CA 92317 Phone (909) 337-7535 Fax (909) 337-0575 Email: COMPUSERVE : 75604,3535 AMERICA ONLINE : SROSYSTEMS We answer most calls/faxes/email within one day. ENJOY . . . . SEAN