Steven W. Erbach
serbach at new.rr.com
Thu Apr 22 10:06:18 CDT 2004
Dear Group, In debugging the custom EDI application I'm writing for a client of mine, I "discovered" a thing or two about using the Shell command to run a DOS batch file. The purpose of using the DOS batch file is to start an FTP session and upload a bunch of files to the EDI mailbox. Then, when the batch file is finished, move the files that were uploaded into an archive folder on the server. I had tested the batch file from a command prompt and it works just dandy. The EDI documents show up as having been uploaded successfully. However when I used the Shell command in my application I wouldn't see any document names uploaded. Then I'd get the annoying e-mail the next day from the EDI service provider saying that the expected documents weren't received. I finally figured out the problem: Access doesn't wait for the batch file to finish. The Shell command just launches the external program, whatever it is, and goes on to the next task. In my case it was moving the EDI documents into an archive folder. Well, Access whisked those files out of the FTP folder so fast that by the time the FTP login was complete (user name, password, and account name) the files were no longer available for uploading. The FTP session didn't fail, as such, there just wasn't anything to send. So, I added a MsgBox asking the user to verify that the DOS session had ended before going on to archive the EDI files. Problem solved. Sorry if this is tediously obvious, but I haven't ever run a batch file from Access and I have nobody to bounce this stuff off of (nobody off of whom to bounce this stuff?). Regards, Steve Erbach Scientific Marketing Neenah, WI 920-969-0504 "Congress is as trustworthy with money as a crack addict who is experimenting with heroin." - Dave Barry "Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P. J. O'Rourke "Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for." - Will Rogers "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress." - Mark Twain