Notify user after completion - FlashWindowEx

E

exangel7

New member
Local time
Today, 08:52
Joined
Apr 29, 2020
Messages
2
Hi,

I am searching for working solution to notify user after Access do some VBA, SQL runs in background. I tried using API FlashWindowEx with no action. Then tried more simply AppActivate without success.
Best way I think would be simple notify user by blinking Access icon. Not sure what to change to make this happens. If any other solutions works somewhere there gladly to try :)


Code: 
Private Const FLASHW_STOP = 0 'Stop flashing. The system restores the window to its original state.
Private Const FLASHW_CAPTION = &H1 'Flash the window caption.
Private Const FLASHW_TRAY = &H2 'Flash the taskbar button.
Private Const FLASHW_ALL = (FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY) 'Flash both the window caption and taskbar button. This is equivalent to setting the FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY flags.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMER = &H4 'Flash continuously, until the FLASHW_STOP flag is set.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMERNOFG = &HC 'Flash continuously until the window comes to the foreground.
 
Private Type FLASHWINFO
    cbSize As Long
    hWnd As Long
    dwFlags As Long
    uCount As Long
    dwTimeout As Long
End Type
 
Private Declare Function FlashWindowEx Lib "user32" (pfwi As FLASHWINFO) As Boolean



Public Sub NotificationFlashing()
Dim FlashInfo As FLASHWINFO

  With FlashInfo
      .cbSize = Len(FlashInfo)
      .dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL Or FLASHW_TIMER
      .dwTimeout = 0
      .hWnd = Screen.ActiveForm.hWnd
      .uCount = 0
  End With
  FlashWindowEx FlashInfo

End Sub
 
Hi. Welcome to AWF! Sorry I can't help you with APIs because I don't know them much. But if you don't mind interrupting the process in Access, maybe the "simplest" approach is to use a MsgBox. Just a thought...
 
Hi @exangel7
There is no FlashWindow example as I've never heard of it till now. What exactly is it meant to do?
Can you give me a link to a working example?
If you need any help with the various methods used in the Attention Seek example app, feel free to ask questions
 
Very old thread, but I wanted to do the same thing and found a working solution here: https://www.tek-tips.com/threads/can-i-make-the-application-titlebar-flash.1064502/

I also saw references to FlashWindowEx which allowed you to set the duration of the flashing, but couldn't get that to work.

Here is the code I used in a new module (for 64-bit):

Code: 
Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Declare PtrSafe Function FlashWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal bInvert As Long) As Long

Const Invert = 1

Sub FlashIcon()
FlashWindow Application.hWndAccessApp, Invert
End Sub

Hope it helps others.
 
Hi Marshall
Just tried it and it does work. Thanks
However, in my opinion it would be far too easy to overlook a highlighted/flashing taskbar icon
 
Concur, depending on your purpose. In my case, I'm using it for an idle timeout if someone leaves the database up and walks away and/or walks away with the computer running.

Without the flashing the database gained focus AFTER the pop-up to cancel the form closing appeared.

Another recommended solution was

AppActivate

Which works and brings Access to the focus, but that is annoying if you are in the middle of typing an E-mail, etc.
 
Forgot to say, for 64-bit the API should be:

Code: 
Declare PtrSafe Function FlashWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr, ByVal bInvert As Long) As Long

If run from a form command button, the icon flashes once and then stays off
From a module it flashes 4 times and then stays on for a while.
No idea what causes the difference
 
The "Flash Window" stuff IS used in Office. Old Outlook flashes its icon in the task bar when something is going on but it cannot gain focus. Some of my games also do that when they have been placed in the background and something starts happening in-game if you didn't pause it before switching focus.
 
isladogs said:
Forgot to say, for 64-bit the API should be:
Click to expand...
Appreciate it - it works the way I posted it, but probably not always reliably.

For completeness, in case the other thread dies, for 32-bit it is:
Code: 
Declare Function FlashWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal bInvert As Long) As Long

isladogs said:
If run from a form command button, the icon flashes once and then stays off
From a module it flashes 4 times and then stays on for a while.
No idea what causes the difference
Click to expand...
I think I know why ... It is supposed to flash the icon until the app regains focus.

If I run it from the VBE in a module, it flashes twice (not 4 times) and then stays on until I click back into the main Access window (as opposed to "for a while") (and if I have more than one database open, it only flashes the icon for the database it was run from). Not sure why it flashes twice for me and 4 times for you, but it might be Win11 vs. other Windows versions and/or Windows 11 Taskbar settings.

Worth mentioning also: In Windows 11, Under "Settings>Personalization>Taskbar>Taskbar Behaviors>Show Flashing on Taskbar Apps". With that unchecked, from a module, it flashes the icon twice (on my Win11 system) and then goes out. (And if you previously had that checked and ran FlashWindow from a module and didn't switch to the main Access window and then uncheck the windows setting, the icon stays "lit" even when you regain focus and even if you re-check the Windows setting. I had to close and re-open the database to get it back to normal.) - But if someone tests it and it doesn't seem to be working, that setting is something to check into. Also implies you shouldn't rely on this solely as a notification, b/c users could turn that setting off. (It is on by default in a new Win11 install, I believe).

If you run it from a command button - presumably the button is on the database so the database has focus, therefore the icon doesn't stay on.

The_Doc_Man said:
The "Flash Window" stuff IS used in Office.
Click to expand...
Originally mis-interpreted your comment to imply it was an Office feature rather than a Windows feature. It is used fairly often across many apps. Old Outlook, Teams, Skype, etc all use it. I believe Acrobat uses it if you double-click a file and then switch to a different app before the file opens. FrameMaker uses it when you are scripting and something happens in the main window. I'm not positive, but I think Teams Web App and Outlook Web App will flash the browser icon.

***
Actually, I would prefer to use FlashWindowEx, which is the subject of the thread and allows you to set the duration of flashing, but I couldn't get that to work correctly in Access (probably my skills rather than Access limitations) and could get FlashWindow to work.
 
Marshall Brooks said:
Actually, I would prefer to use FlashWindowEx, which is the subject of the thread and allows you to set the duration of flashing, but I couldn't get that to work correctly in Access (probably my skills rather than Access limitations) and could get FlashWindow to work.
Click to expand...
Post your non-working attempt. - After a quick look at the API documentation I'm fairly sure, it can be fixed quickly.
 
@sonic8 - Appreciate it. Unfortunately, there were several non-working attempts and I deleted them after I got the FlashWindow non-EX working.

Documentation showing the duration is here: http://allapi.mentalis.org/apilist/354B35E13B1AEE7522455E5478278369.html

The main thing I attempted was the code at the start of this thread, using the PtrSafe declaration:
Code: 
Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Const FLASHW_STOP = 0 'Stop flashing. The system restores the window to its original state.
Private Const FLASHW_CAPTION = &H1 'Flash the window caption.
Private Const FLASHW_TRAY = &H2 'Flash the taskbar button.
Private Const FLASHW_ALL = (FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY) 'Flash both the window caption and taskbar button. This is equivalent to setting the FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY flags.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMER = &H4 'Flash continuously, until the FLASHW_STOP flag is set.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMERNOFG = &HC 'Flash continuously until the window comes to the foreground.
 
Private Type FLASHWINFO
    cbSize As Long
    hWnd As Long
    dwFlags As Long
    uCount As Long
    dwTimeout As Long
End Type
 
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FlashWindowEx Lib "user32" (pfwi As FLASHWINFO) As Boolean



Public Sub NotificationFlashing()
Dim FlashInfo As FLASHWINFO

  With FlashInfo
      .cbSize = Len(FlashInfo)
      .dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL Or FLASHW_TIMER
      .dwTimeout = 0
      .hWnd = Application.hWndAccessApp
      .uCount = 0
  End With
  FlashWindowEx FlashInfo

End Sub

I also tried "some" code that I found on the web that gave me an error with "User-defined type not defined" with pfwi highlighted.
 
Code: 
Private Const FLASHW_STOP = 0 'Stop flashing. The system restores the window to its original state.
Private Const FLASHW_CAPTION = &H1 'Flash the window caption.
Private Const FLASHW_TRAY = &H2 'Flash the taskbar button.
Private Const FLASHW_ALL = (FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY) 'Flash both the window caption and taskbar button. This is equivalent to setting the FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY flags.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMER = &H4 'Flash continuously, until the FLASHW_STOP flag is set.
Private Const FLASHW_TIMERNOFG = &HC 'Flash continuously until the window comes to the foreground.
 
Private Type FLASHWINFO
    cbSize As Long
    hWnd As LongPtr
    dwFlags As Long
    uCount As Long
    dwTimeout As Long
End Type
 
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FlashWindowEx Lib "user32.dll" (pfwi As FLASHWINFO) As Boolean

Public Sub NotificationFlashing()
    Dim flashInfo As FLASHWINFO

    With flashInfo
        .cbSize = LenB(flashInfo)
        .dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL Or FLASHW_TIMER
        .dwTimeout = 0
        .hWnd = Application.hWndAccessApp
        .uCount = 0
    End With

    FlashWindowEx flashInfo
Stop
    flashInfo.dwFlags = FLASHW_STOP
    FlashWindowEx flashInfo
End Sub

That works for me on 64-bit.

Edit: Phil was faster than me. ;) (y)
 
sonic8 said:
You can download the module here: http://codekabinett.com/download/modFlashWindowEx.zip
Click to expand...
Works great - I like it!!! (in 64-bit). I imported your module and then I added:
Code: 
Sub FlashIcon()
    FlashWindow (Application.hWndAccessApp)
End Sub

One thing odd is that .uCount seems to be a bit off. You had it set to 10 and it seemed to flash 8 times for me. I set it to 12 and it flashed 10 times, which is what I wanted it to do.
 
Thanks Philipp.
Works perfectly in 64-bit Access for me. Not that its important but I also found the count is also slightly off - for me it flashed 13 times!
 
isladogs said:
Works perfectly in 64-bit Access for me. Not that its important but I also found the count is also slightly off - for me it flashed 13 times!
Click to expand...
Thank you, Colin!
I see what you mean.
The caption/title of the window flashes exactly the number of times of uCount but the Taskbar button continues to flash three more times after the window title stopped. This appears to be unrelated to the value of uCount, except for a value of 1 were the Taskbar button does not flash at all.

PS: It should be obvious that this behavior is not caused by the VBA code but by Microsoft's internal implementation of FlashWindowEx.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
Restored Window has blank menu bar
Replies
5
Views
4,533
DJkarl
D

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom