Passing values across network... - Xtreme Visual Basic Talk

02-28-2006, 12:16 PM

BBauer42

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Location: CT, USA

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Passing values across network...

I'm using VBA and Excel. I have a progam that is constantly running in our lab downstairs. It monitors both temperature and humidity of an oven and some other variables.

Our ovens have been acting up lately and it would be awesome if I could see the updated temperature and humidity on my PC upstairs. Is there a way in VBA I could grab these values over the network by printing them to a .txt file in a shared folder or something, then have them populate a form or .txt file on my PC upstairs?

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!!

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02-28-2006, 01:11 PM

herilane

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Not knowing anything about the program in question, it is hard to say whether it is possible to interact with it through VBA. Can the program be configured to save its output in a text file? Or is it doing that already?

03-01-2006, 12:58 AM

mattcovell mattcovell is offline

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what if you print screen the lab pc every minute or so and save it to a shared folder, im not sure how you would do this but i would be interested to see.

03-02-2006, 08:26 AM

BBauer42

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Location: CT, USA

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Print screen, etc...

The program that is running downstairs could be appended so it writes the varialbes to a .txt file.

I would then write another program to run on my machine upstairs that would hopefully browse to a folder, open and display the text in the .txt file. This would happen every 10 minutes or so just so I could keep tabs on the temp/humidity of the oven. Problem is I'm not sure how to read a .txt file that is in a network folder.

I could do the printscreen and just save it to a folder and check that every so often. However, I am not sure how to use VBA to take a screenshot...

Any ideas????

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03-02-2006, 02:24 PM

herilane

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Opening a file in a network folder is no different from opening a local file.

Code:

Dim wb As Workbook
Set wb = Workbooks.Open("\\computername\foldername\filename.xls")
wb.Close

or if you're opening the file as text,

Code:

Open "\\computername\foldername\filename.xls" For Input As #1

Last edited by herilane; 03-02-2006 at 02:32 PM.

03-02-2006, 03:03 PM

wbeard52

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Location: Arizona

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The easiest way without any code is to use the remote desktop feature (XP Pro) to place the desktop onto your computer. Any other OS can use RealVNC to remotely monitor what you need.