>I use createprocess api in other locations of my app fine. I am trying to instigate another use of it. Typically I use it run an .exe from my app and wait until the .exe closes and then return to my app. In this case, I want to do the same thing except the file I am running is not an .exe file but an .xfdf file. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and you have a .pdf file with form fields and a matching .xfdf file when you click on the .xfdf file in windows explorer Adobe Acrobat will launch and populate the form with the data from the .xfdf file. This works fine in windows explorer and in a dos window (except that the dos window is open also in that case).
>
>Does createprocess work with non .exe files? Here is my code and it fails everytime:
>
>

>lcACORDdef = SYS(5)+SYS(2003)
>SET DEFAULT TO LEFT(hdir,RAT("\",hdir)-1)
>*I can verify my default directory here is correct: c:\foxpro\vfp8
>IF FILE(tempfile) .and. FILE(pdffile) && returns .t. as it should
>*llacordok = RunAndWait(xacordform+'.xfdf',' ',LEFT(hdir,RAT("\",hdir)-1))
>   *--line below is the same as the line above hard coded it for testing
>   *--The only difference that I can see is that I am not passing a 2nd
>   *--second parameter in this case (no command line)
>   llacordok = RunAndWait('61NC.XFDF',' ','C:\FOXPRO\VFP8')
>   IF !llacordok
>	=MESSAGEBOX("Unable to print Acord Form.",0+16+4096,"ERROR")
>   ELSE
>	WAIT WINDOW "Finished Printing" NOWAIT
>   ENDIF
>ELSE
>   =MESSAGEBOX("Unable to create Acord Form.",0+16+4096,"An ERROR Ocurred")
>ENDIF
>SET DEFAULT TO &lcACORDdef
>
>RETURN
>
>PROCEDURE  RunAndWait (lcApp, lcCmdLine, lcdir)
>=DECL()
>#DEFINE INFINITE  0xFFFFFFFF
>LOCAL lcStartupInfo, lcProcInfo, hProcess, ;
>	lnPrio, lnIBelieve1
>lnIBelieve1 = 1   && Don't remember what that was
>lnPrio = 32 && Priority of Process=Normal
>lcStartupInfo = CHR(68) + REPLI(CHR(0), 67)
>lcProcInfo = REPLI(CHR(0), 16)
>IF CreateProcess(0, m.lcApp+" "+m.lcCmdLine+CHR(0), 0,0,;
>		m.lnIBelieve1, m.lnPrio,;
>		0, 0, @lcStartupInfo, @lcProcInfo) <> 0
>	* process and thread handles returned in ProcInfo structure
>	hProcess = buf2dword(SUBSTR(lcProcInfo, 1,4))
>	hThread = buf2dword(SUBSTR(lcProcInfo, 5,4))
>	* waiting until the termination
>	= WaitForSingleObject(hProcess, INFINITE)
>	= CloseHandle(hThread)
>	= CloseHandle(hProcess)
>ELSE
>        *!!!* This is where it returns .f. the result is 0
>	RETURN .F.
>ENDIF
>RETURN
>
>PROCEDURE DECL
>DECLARE INTEGER CreateProcess IN kernel32;
>	INTEGER lpAppName, STRING lpCmdLine, INTEGER lpProcAttr,;
>	INTEGER lpThrAttr, INTEGER bInhHandles, INTEGER dwCrFlags,;
>	INTEGER lpEnvir, INTEGER lpCurDir, ;
>	STRING @lpStInfo, STRING @lpProcInfo
>DECLARE INTEGER GetLastError IN kernel32
>DECLARE INTEGER CloseHandle IN kernel32 INTEGER hObject
>DECLARE INTEGER WaitForSingleObject IN kernel32;
>	INTEGER hHandle, INTEGER dwMilliseconds
>RETURN
>
>FUNCTION buf2dword(lcBuffer)
>		RETURN ASC(SUBSTR(lcBuffer, 1,1)) + ;
>		ASC(SUBSTR(lcBuffer, 2,1)) * 256 +;
>		ASC(SUBSTR(lcBuffer, 3,1)) * 65536 +;
>		ASC(SUBSTR(lcBuffer, 4,1)) * 16777216
>RETURN
>
>

Hi Tracy,

My guess is that the file type you're trying to run is not directly executable via CreateProcess. You may be able to use CreateProcess to launch it, if you can determine the associated executable, e.g. via the FindExecutable API function, or by looking up this extension in the registry. Then you'd open the document by passing the document name as an argument to the proper executable.

Alternatively, you can use ShellExecuteEx, which will generally return a process handle. See news2news for illustration of how to use ShellExecuteEx.

Mike