Home » Tip Bank » Tasks and Techniques » Deployment

Language: Visual Basic
Expertise: Advanced

Aug 6, 1997

I'm programming for a LAN and quite often I add requested features to the program. The LAN is set up so that each workstation is running its own copy of the program and is only reading/writing data files on the server. This arrangement has significantly increased the startup speed of the program; however, when the EXE file is changed, all the workstation programs must be changed. I get around having to go to each station with this program:

 
Private Sub Form_Load()
	On Error GoTo errorhandler
	' the Command function Returns the 
	' argument portion of the command 
	' line used to launch Microsoft 
	' Visual Basic or an executable 
	' program developed with Visual Basic.
	' ie:(thisprog.exe c:\localdir\prgcopied.exe 
	' k:\servrdir\prgtocopy.exe)
	If FileDateTime(Left(Command$, _
		InStr(Command$, " ") - 1)) < _
		FileDateTime(Mid$(Command$, _
		InStr(Command$, " ") + 1)) Then 
		' case the file does not exist
		' locate the form designed to your pref.
		Top = (Screen.Height - Height) / 2
		Left = (Screen.Width - Width) / 2
		' containing a label
		label1 = "Copying " & Mid$(Command$, InStr_
			(Command$, " ") + 1) & _
			" to your hard_disk..."
		' make the form it visible so the 
		' operator has something to look 
		' at while the program is copied
		Visible = True
		Refresh
		' copy file as per parameters in Command$
		FileCopy Mid$(Command$, _
			InStr(Command$, " ") + 1), _
			Left(Command$, InStr(Command$, " ") - 1)
	End If
	'start the program
	x = Shell(Left(Command$, InStr(Command$, " ") - 1), 3)
	End
	Exit Sub
errorhandler:
	If Err = 53 Then 'file not found
		Resume Next 'copy the file anyway
	Else 'trap other errors
		MsgBox "Error # " & Err & Chr(10) & Error _ 				& Chr(10) & "program will be terminated"
		End
	End If
	Exit Sub
End Sub