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Friday, February 19. 2010
Cassie Print Station - Automatically Close the Window
Cassie is a PC Reservation Management system software built for libraries, or other venues that wish to offer multiple PCs for the public to use. It also has a print management station. Unfortunately, as of the current version, when a user goes to view their own print jobs, their account window stays active "forever" until they, or someone else clicks on the "Close" button. When using with a JAMEX corporation coinbox, it also doesn't give the user their change until the window is closed (insert $1.00 for a $0.60 charge, it won't expell the $0.40 until the window is closed).
This is a bit of a problem.
I've used AutoIT, an automation scripting language, to automate the process of a user clicking on the close button. The makers of Cassie didn't make it easy though, I was unable to detect the actual button, thankfully ALT+F4 worked (ESC worked until the JAMEX portion was added, for some reason it stopped working afterward).
This uses the included Timers.au3 file to do most of the dirty work in detecting an idle state. If the computer is left idle for 45 seconds, it will issue ALT+F4 and close the window. ALT+F4 cannot close the application itself in this instance (and won't be issued unless that window exists and is active anyway). Although it checks every 100 milliseconds and runs at all times that the computer is turned on, I tested the resources it takes up...it was barely noticeable on an old P4 @ 2.80 GHz w/2.86 GB RAM (my work PC). This application (once compiled with AutoIT) should be placed in the Windows' Startup folder (or a respective registry key).
This is a bit of a problem.
I've used AutoIT, an automation scripting language, to automate the process of a user clicking on the close button. The makers of Cassie didn't make it easy though, I was unable to detect the actual button, thankfully ALT+F4 worked (ESC worked until the JAMEX portion was added, for some reason it stopped working afterward).
This uses the included Timers.au3 file to do most of the dirty work in detecting an idle state. If the computer is left idle for 45 seconds, it will issue ALT+F4 and close the window. ALT+F4 cannot close the application itself in this instance (and won't be issued unless that window exists and is active anyway). Although it checks every 100 milliseconds and runs at all times that the computer is turned on, I tested the resources it takes up...it was barely noticeable on an old P4 @ 2.80 GHz w/2.86 GB RAM (my work PC). This application (once compiled with AutoIT) should be placed in the Windows' Startup folder (or a respective registry key).