Windows NT Job Schedule Support
Description

On Windows NT 4.0 commands may be scheduled with the AT command to run as background processes.  This command allows a user to schedule tasks (e.g. performing automatic backups) without the help of an operator.  This library introduces class NetScheduleJob in VS to create or remove a job from the schedule queue and NetScheduleJobs to query the job queue.

Files

ScheduleSupport.sll
ScheduleSupport.st
Windows NT schedule support library and file in source

Requirements

VS/VSE 3.1.2 for Win32s on Windows NT 4.0.

Installation

Select File-Install from theVisual Smalltalk menu bar and install ScheduleSupport.st or ScheduleSupport.sll.

Examples

Before performing the example ensure that the NT schedule service is started.  From Start point to Settings and open the Windows Control Panel.  From the Control Panel group open Services.  From the Services window scroll down the service list and select Schedule from the list.  Click on the Start button if it is active to start the scheduling service.  If the Stop button is active then the service has already been started.

To open a workspace on code that submits a sample job evaluate:

    NetScheduleJob example.

The code that appears in the workspace schedules a job from Visual Smalltalk that requests NT to open a command window and perform the 'dir' command.

All the jobs you submit to NT form a queue. The class NetScheduleJobs provides
support to access and inspect this queue.  Evaluate the following to open a workspace with expressions to inspect the job queue:

    NetScheduleJobs example

In both these examples the 'server' is an empty String. This means that you are
scheduling jobs for the default server you are currently working on. If you provide
the name of another server you can reach from your LAN then you
should see and schedule jobs submitted for that server with the NetScheduleJob and NetScheduleJobs classes.

Additional info

Windows NT 4.0 has online documentation for the 'AT' scheduling command and some examples.  To access this information click on the NT 4.0 Start button, point to the Help menu item, select the Index tab in the Windows NT Help window that appears, enter 'AT command' in the search field, and press the 'Display' button to see the results.

To view jobs from Windows enter 'AT'  in the command prompt window.

To remove all jobs scheduled enter 'AT /DELETE' at the command prompt.

Contact

Leandro Caniglia
caniglia@dm.uba.ar


Links to:
The ObjectShare web site
VisualSmalltalk Product Support
ObjectShare's Online Documentation Site