Visual Basic

Using media player in VB.net

13-Apr-06 11:55

See what I mean? Big Grin | :-D

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

birney913-Apr-06 8:14

birney9

13-Apr-06 8:14

I have a simple game i am writing. I want a sound to play automatically when a form displays. I imbedded WMP on the form. If you click it, a window displays allowing the user to choose a sound, I want it to play as soon as the form displays withou any interaction from the user.

Bill

Re: Using media player in VB.net

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 8:57

how do I Convert Filetime to datetim

13-Apr-06 8:57

AxWindowsMediaPlayer1.Ctlcontrols.play()

You can find more about Media Players automation interface here[^].

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

David M J13-Apr-06 6:28

13-Apr-06 6:28

Hi
I am trying to convert a systemtime to a normal time. I am using the following code I found in a C# bit, converted it to vb.net

C#
private static DateTime SystemTimeToDateTime( ref SYSTEMTIME st )
{
FILETIME ft = new FILETIME();
NativeMethods.SystemTimeToFileTime( ref st, out ft );
DateTime dt = new DateTime( ( ( (long) ft.dwHighDateTime ) << 32 ) | (uint) ft.dwLowDateTime );
return dt;
}

VB.NET
Private Shared Function SystemTimeToDateTime(ByRef st As SYSTEMTIME) As DateTime
Dim ft As FILETIME = New FILETIME
NativeMethods.SystemTimeToFileTime(st, ft)
Dim dt As DateTime
dt = New DateTime(((CType(ft.dwHighDateTime, Long)) << 32) + CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, Integer))
Return dt
End Function

It all goes fine to the part CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, Integer) as in vb.net the filetime is returned as integer and not as int as it is done in C#. C# to VB converter converted the | into or. I found more articles use + so I changed it as well.

But as you can guess it doesn't work and I can't find any non C# stuff anywhere regarding this. So I gues s there is another way of doing or my code is just screwed. Can you help or suggest anything, except reprogramming everything in C# Smile | :)

)

Cheers David

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 6:38

13-Apr-06 6:38

I haven't tested it, but it should be more like this:

Private Shared Function SystemTimeToDateTime(ByRef st As SYSTEMTIME) As DateTime
Dim ft As FILETIME = New FILETIME
NativeMethods.SystemTimeToFileTime(st, ft)
Dim dt As DateTime 
dt = New DateTime(((CType(ft.dwHighDateTime, Long)) << 32) Or CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, UInt32))
Return dt
End Function

First, at the end of this equation, convert the value of ft.dwLowDateTime to a UNSIGNED Integer, not a signed integer. This can make all the difference in the world. On top of that, you can't add this value to the front of the equation. All kinds of addition carry overs will screw up the results. You must use a bit-wise OR, just like in the original C# code.

But, of course, the results will depend on the correct definition of the FILETIME and SYSTEMTIME structures. Hopefully, you didn't interchange signed integers for unsigned??

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

-- modified at 12:39 Thursday 13th April, 2006

David M J13-Apr-06 7:28

13-Apr-06 7:28

Thanks for the response.
I am taking the filetime from the System.Runtime.InteropServices. I am not defining my own structure. However when I use CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, UInt32) I get the error message that I cannot convert from integer to UInt32 for some reason VB assumes the ft.dwLowDateTime is an integer, as in C# this doesn't seem to be the problem. How can I change that?

Cheers
David

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 8:23

13-Apr-06 8:23

I finally found the code you're trying to convert by hand. I got this to work:

    Private Declare Auto Function SystemTimeToFileTime Lib "kernel32" ( _
            <[In]()> ByRef st As SYSTEMTIME, _
            ByRef lpFileTime AS FILETIME) _
            As Boolean
 
    <StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
    Private Structure SYSTEMTIME
        Public wYear As UInt16
        Public wMonth As UInt16
        Public wDayOfWeek As UInt16
        Public wDay As UInt16
        Public wHour As UInt16
        Public wMinute As UInt16
        Public wSecond As UInt16
        Public wMillisecond As UInt16
    End Structure
.
.
.
    Private Sub Button1_Click(blah, blah) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim st As SYSTEMTIME
        With st
            .wDay = 14
            .wMonth = 4
            .wYear = 3606    ' 2006 + 1600
            .wHour = 14
            .wMinute = 15
            .wSecond = 31
        End With
 
        Dim ft As New FILETIME
        SystemTimeToFileTime(st, ft)
 
        Dim dt As New DateTime(((CType(ft.dwHighDateTime, Long)) << 32) Or _
            CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, UInt32))
        Debug.WriteLine(dt)
    End Sub

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

David M J13-Apr-06 8:36

13-Apr-06 8:36

I am getting imediate troubles with .wDay = 14 saying that that cannot be converted to Uint16. Could it be that I need to change one of these option setting. Forgot the name, but as you used to have option strict etc. Be the way thanks for the help, much appreciated. Just one other thing what does << mean can't find that in the help file as it is an illegal entry there.

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 9:12

13-Apr-06 9:12

I'm using VB 2005, and you're not. That's why the problems...

"<<" is a bit-wise shift operator that finally appeared (many years too late!) in 2005. To get the same effect using math, you need to multiply the value by 2^(number of bits to shift left). Sooooo, the same operation can be done like this:

Dim dt As New DateTime(((CType(ft.dwHighDateTime, Long)) * (2 ^ 32) Or CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, UInt32))

Because of the math, it's quite a bit slower, but it does the same thing.

As for the other problem, IIRC, since the values involved are small, you can get away with changing the data types in the SYSTEMTIME structure to Int16 and it'll still work.

<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
    Private Structure SYSTEMTIME
        Public wYear As Int16
        Public wMonth As Int16
        Public wDayOfWeek As Int16
        Public wDay As Int16
        Public wHour As Int16
        Public wMinute As Int16
        Public wSecond As Int16
        Public wMillisecond As Int16
    End Structure

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

David M J13-Apr-06 9:58

13-Apr-06 9:58

Then I still have the problem that I cannot convert the dwLowDateTime to Uint32. As in the original problem. The thing I don't get is that this convertion works fine for C# and vb.net

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 12:28

13-Apr-06 12:28

OK. You can change that UInt32 to Long an it'll work.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

David M J13-Apr-06 12:45

13-Apr-06 12:45

Hi,
Tried this, assuming that is what you meant ...

Dim dt As DateTime = New DateTime(((CType(ft.dwHighDateTime, Long)) << 32) Or CType(ft.dwLowDateTime, Long))

But then I get the exception message:

"Ticks must be between DateTime.MinValue.Ticks and DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks.
Parameter name: ticks"

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 12:50

13-Apr-06 12:50

Hmmmm...I never got that message in testing. What's the value of the High and Low in ft when it fails? Even better, also, what's the values in st before the call to SystemTimeToFileTime?

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

-- modified at 18:50 Thursday 13th April, 2006

David M J13-Apr-06 13:00

13-Apr-06 13:00

Here are the value for st :
wDay: 31
wDayOfWeek: 5
wHour: 23
wMilliseconds: 0
wMinute: 0
wMonth: 12
wSecond: 0
wYear: 3604

whith wich values are you testing?

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 13:42

13-Apr-06 13:42

OK. This should do it. The problem is that the bitwise math isn't working as it should because one of the value types in the FILETIME structure isn't what it appeared to be.

Dim dt As New DateTime((ft.dwHighDateTime * (2 ^ 32)) + ft.dwLowDateTime)

I'd beat the snot out of this code before putting it into production.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

-- modified at 19:42 Thursday 13th April, 2006

David M J14-Apr-06 6:22

14-Apr-06 6:22

Hi Dave,
Fixed it in a more convential way ... :

Private Shared Function SystemTimeToDateTime(ByRef st As SYSTEMTIME) As DateTime

Dim dt As DateTime
Dim dtFormat As String

Dim en As New CultureInfo("en-GB")
dtFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm"
With st
dt = DateTime.ParseExact( _
Format$(.wDay, "00") & "/" & _
Format$(.wMonth, "00") & "/" & _
Format$(.wYear - 1600) & " " & _
Format$(.wHour, "00") & ":" & _
Format$(.wMinute, "00"), dtFormat, en.DateTimeFormat) ' & ":" & _
' Format$(.wSecond, "00"), dtFormat, en.DateTimeFormat)

End With

Return dt
End Function

Gues it is a bit less efficient, not sure how much though.
Your remark about the code and the snot was that just about this problem or also about the rest of the code. If so could you give me some pointers, guess it is never too late to learn. Smile | :)

)

Cheers
David

Think, try, think, think, try, think, think, think, try, ASK, think, try, advance on step and start over...

reading msg file

pnpfriend13-Apr-06 5:41

pnpfriend

13-Apr-06 5:41

Hi How can I open and read msg file information such as from, to, subject, location, when for appointment and body programmatically?

i tried to use redemption but I'm missing some information such as location and when for appointment.

how many type of attachments in email?
When I try to read email attachment, I would like to know what type of attachments are?

Re: reading msg file

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 7:12

13-Apr-06 7:12

You'll have top open this file in the application that wrote it. I take it your using Outlook? Outlook has a COM-based object model that can get this information for you. This[^] article on MSDN should get you started.

pnpfriend wrote:
i tried to use redemption

Redemption?? Are you praying for this to work? Are you in need of forgiveness? We can't really handle issues of the faith here at CP.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

Re: reading msg file

pnpfriend14-Apr-06 8:02

pnpfriend

14-Apr-06 8:02

Yes I'm trying to use redemption[^]

to get the msg file information such as To, From, Subject, Body and if the msg file is appointment file, I'm trying to get Location and Start time of that appointment.
But I dont know how to get the appointment date, time and location.

Re: reading msg file

Dave Kreskowiak14-Apr-06 9:05

Global variable and Sub Main()

14-Apr-06 9:05

pnpfriend wrote:
to get the msg file information such as To, From, Subject, Body and if the msg file is appointment file

For that, you're going to have to get ahold of the people who wrote Redemption and ask them. From what I can see, RDO doesn't support Appointment objects. SafeAppointmentItem looks like it supports what you want, but the documentation isn't exactly complete.

As far as attachments go, Outlook doesn't care about what the file types are. So, you'll have to get the filename of each attachment, specifically the .extension, and P/Inokve Shell functions to lookup what that extension is registered to.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

percyvimal13-Apr-06 4:25

percyvimal

13-Apr-06 4:25

Hello
I am new to .net.
I need to know the following information.

1.How to declare global variables.
2.where to declare ( in VB6 used to declare those in Modules what about 2005?)
3.How to make the application Run the Sub Main() function?( I saw in VS2005 My Project Tool and it shows only forms which are in the projects and it didnt show the module which i have added which contains a main function and i have tried to add a class and tried the same and still no luck.
5.How to end the application Frmmdiform.END?

Thanks for the reply in advance

Regards

Help in need is the help indeed

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 7:06

13-Apr-06 7:06

percyvimal wrote:
1.How to declare global variables.

Global variables don't exist in the .NET Framework. They're also bad practice. You can simulate something close by declaring your variables as Shared in another class:

Public Class HelpersLibrary
    Public Shared myGlobalVariable As Integer
End Class

percyvimal wrote:
2.where to declare ( in VB6 used to declare those in Modules what about 2005?)

Modules are an outdated concept. They're only there for backwards compatibility with VB6.

percyvimal wrote:
3.How to make the application Run the Sub Main() function

You actually have to turn off the "Enable Application Framework" option in My Project before Sub Main will show up in the list. After that, all you have to do is supply a Sub Main in either a Module or a Class. For a Module, add a new one to your project, then put something like the following code in it:

Module MainStartupCode
    Public Sub Main()
        ' Your startup code begins here
        ' To launch a form and start your Windows GUI:
        Application.Run(New mainForm)
    End Sub
End Module

Or, to support command line arguments:

Module MainStartupCode
    Public Sub Main(ByVal cmdArgs() As String)
        ' Your startup code begins here
        ' To launch a form and start your Windows GUI:
        Application.Run(New mainForm)
    End Sub
End Module

Now, you don't have to have a Module to supply a Sub Main. You can do it with a Shared member Sub of a class:

Public Class Form1
    <STAThread()> _
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Same as above examples...
    End Sub
 
    ' the rest of your form code goes here...
End Class

Don't forget to go back into MyProject and select Sub Main< from the Startup object dropdown.

percyvimal wrote:

What happened to 4?

percyvimal wrote:
5.How to end the application Frmmdiform.END

Me.Close()

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic

percyvimal13-Apr-06 11:25

percyvimal

13-Apr-06 11:25

Thank you very much Mr Dave
That is great explanation.I am still in the world of VB6 and so need to crawl to get into the world of .NET and people like you i hope will take me in the right direction.

Sorry for the Numbering Error.
"You actually have to turn off the "Enable Application Framework" option in My Project "
This helped me a great deal for i was scratching my head why submain was not listing in the dropdown.

Regarding No3:

Now, you don't have to have a Module to supply a Sub Main. You can do it with a Shared member Sub of a class:<br />
<br />
Public Class Form1    <STAThread()> _    Public Shared Sub Main()        ' Same as above examples...    End Sub     ' the rest of your form code goes here...End Class<br />
<br />

According to your example Form1 --should be the start up form?Could you able to explain how it works.I assume my Sub Main will be triggered first where whatever i wrote as code will be executed and then formLoad event?

Me.Close()= ME.END in VB6 ie does it free up the application from memory?

You have suggested that using global variable is not such a good practice and i have read in some article also that it is not a OOPS concept to have global variables.
So what is the best and alternative way. Do i need to create a class with get and set parameter in a class to store that values? I would like you hear from you what is the best method to be followed to keep global variables?

Thanks and Regards

Help in need is the help indeed

Dave Kreskowiak13-Apr-06 12:14

13-Apr-06 12:14

percyvimal wrote:
According to your example Form1 --should be the start up form?

A Shared sub can be called without an instance of the class that contains it. Once the Sub Main is created inside ANY public class in your app, you can set it to the be Startup object in the MyProject properties.

Me.Close will close the form that it shows in. If this is the only form in your app, then it will send the WM_CLOSE message to itself. Or, you could replace it with Application.Exit and it will close your entire application, no matter what form it's called in.

And, yes, all the (managed) memory your app uses will be freed.

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic