Browsers and mushclient

Posted by Ishnaf on Fri 27 Sep 2002 04:47 PM — 6 posts, 21,605 views.

Ishnaf Australia Fri 27 Sep 2002 04:47 PM #0

Is it possible to use forms and vbscript to send 'stuff' (such as speedwalk directions) to mushclient. My basic plan is to create a page where you click a button to walk to an area, and then a browser comes up with mob list / eq / etc.

I figured a form integrated with VBScript could do this.... But im guessing active x controls would have to be integrated to the page.... Is this possible?

Thanks,
Ishnaf

Shadowfyr USA Fri 27 Sep 2002 11:11 PM #1

Not without some workaround. In general controls can only be displayed if specifically supported or the client is a 'document container'. Mushclient neither supports controls nor provides such contianer support.

However, there is nothing to stop you from creating a VB Basic or similar program that provides these features. You just have to provide the 'form' or 'window' to display them, since mushclient has no support for such things or the direct display of object in its own window. I have been fiddling with a couple ideas, but short of using HTML and the core of Infernal Exploder, there are no simple solutions. And I don't really consider IE a valid solution.

Eventually, if I figure it out, I plan to allow the user to create a blank form, then either add object indiviually or through a form description a bit like used in the compiler IDEs. However, this will limit the types of things you can display, even assuming I manage to get it to work.

But short of creating such an external window in an ActiveX program and using it to do these things.. your out of luck for now.

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Fri 27 Sep 2002 11:47 PM #2

You can do it from a VB program, but right now it is a bit inelegant, to say the least. Here is an example of what I am playing with ...


Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim world As world
Dim otherworld As world
  
  Set world = CreateObject("MUSHclient.world")

  Set otherworld = world.GetWorld("nickmud")

  otherworld.Note "Hi there"

  Set world = Nothing
  Set otherworld = Nothing
End Sub

You need to add the mushclient.tlb file to the "References" menu item, and then it will recognise the World object type.

However the problem with this is that to instantiate the first world object (CreateObject("MUSHclient.world")) the standard MUSHclient dialog appears "Preload world defaults from an existing world?" and then the configuration dialog for you to enter the world name and IP address. This isn't very smooth.

However if you get past that point, and you have *another* world called "nickmud" (in my example) then the otherworld.note works.

What I need to do is change MUSHclient so that you can do a "getworld" or "getworldlist" without needing an existing world, thus avoiding the Catch-22 situation.

Stay tuned, I'll see what I can do.

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sat 28 Sep 2002 04:07 AM #3

OK, this works pretty well. :)

The fundamental problem as I see it is if you try to start your external app first, and then call MUSHclient, you don't have a "world" object to use, and thus you can't do world.anything.

However, if you start MUSHclient, then call the external app, it all works fine.

This is pretty similar to an earlier post (subject 405) however this one actually shows a form that you can click to do nice things ...

Copy the stuff between the lines below and save into the file names in bold (excluding the file name itself, of course).
Start Visual Basic
Open project mc_example_project.vbp (as saved to disk in step 1).

Go to the File menu and choose "Make mc_example_project.exe"

The above steps have created a ActiveX file that can be called from MUSHclient.



mc_example_project.vbp

Type=OleExe
Reference=*\G{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}#2.0#0#E:\WINNT\System32\StdOle2.Tlb#OLE Automation
Reference=*\G{11DFC5E7-AD6F-11D0-8EAE-00A0247B3BFD}#1.0#0#c:\mushclient\MUSHclient.tlb#MUSHclient
Class=mc_example_class; mc_example_class.cls
Form=Form1.frm
Module=Module1; Module1.bas
Startup="(None)"
ExeName32="mc_example_project.exe"
Command32=""
Name="mc_example_project"
HelpContextID="0"
CompatibleMode="1"
CompatibleEXE32="mc_example_project.exe"
MajorVer=1
MinorVer=0
RevisionVer=0
AutoIncrementVer=0
ServerSupportFiles=0
VersionCompanyName="Gammon Software Solutions"
CompilationType=0
OptimizationType=0
FavorPentiumPro(tm)=0
CodeViewDebugInfo=0
NoAliasing=0
BoundsCheck=0
OverflowCheck=0
FlPointCheck=0
FDIVCheck=0
UnroundedFP=0
StartMode=1
Unattended=0
Retained=0
ThreadPerObject=0
MaxNumberOfThreads=1
DebugStartupOption=0

Form1.frm

VERSION 5.00
Begin VB.Form Form1 
   Caption         =   "Form1"
   ClientHeight    =   5145
   ClientLeft      =   60
   ClientTop       =   345
   ClientWidth     =   6270
   LinkTopic       =   "Form1"
   ScaleHeight     =   5145
   ScaleWidth      =   6270
   StartUpPosition =   3  'Windows Default
   Begin VB.CommandButton Command3 
      Caption         =   "Send It"
      Height          =   495
      Left            =   4200
      TabIndex        =   5
      Top             =   4440
      Width           =   1215
   End
   Begin VB.TextBox DataToSend 
      Height          =   375
      Left            =   1440
      TabIndex        =   4
      Text            =   "Command"
      Top             =   4440
      Width           =   2295
   End
   Begin VB.CommandButton Command2 
      Caption         =   "Get World List"
      Height          =   495
      Left            =   240
      TabIndex        =   2
      Top             =   3480
      Width           =   2055
   End
   Begin VB.ListBox List1 
      Height          =   2010
      Left            =   240
      TabIndex        =   1
      Top             =   1200
      Width           =   4095
   End
   Begin VB.CommandButton Command1 
      Caption         =   "test button"
      Height          =   615
      Left            =   360
      TabIndex        =   0
      Top             =   240
      Width           =   1455
   End
   Begin VB.Label Label1 
      Caption         =   "Send:"
      Height          =   255
      Left            =   360
      TabIndex        =   3
      Top             =   4440
      Width           =   975
   End
End
Attribute VB_Name = "Form1"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = False
Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
  If gWorld Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
  
  gWorld.Note "test button clicked"
  
End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click()
Dim worldlist, item

worldlist = gWorld.GetWorldList

For Each item In worldlist
  List1.AddItem item
Next

End Sub

Private Sub Command3_Click()
Dim thedata
  thedata = DataToSend.Text
  gWorld.Send thedata
  

End Sub

mc_example_project.vbw

mc_example_class = 39, 31, 557, 468, C
Form1 = 154, 154, 672, 591, C, 86, 40, 604, 477, C
Module1 = 176, 176, 694, 613, C


mc_example_class.cls

VERSION 1.0 CLASS
BEGIN
  MultiUse = -1  'True
  Persistable = 0  'NotPersistable
  DataBindingBehavior = 0  'vbNone
  DataSourceBehavior  = 0  'vbNone
  MTSTransactionMode  = 0  'NotAnMTSObject
END
Attribute VB_Name = "mc_example_class"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = True
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False
Attribute VB_Exposed = True
Sub Initialise_me(theworld As World)

'
'  save pointer to the calling world
'
  Set gWorld = theworld
  
'
'  debug - message to world
'
  gWorld.Note "MC Example initialised"
  
  Form1.Show  ' show our first form
  
End Sub

Module1.bas

Attribute VB_Name = "Module1"
'
' Global pointer to the world that initialised us
'
Public gWorld As World

Finally, to test it out in MUSHclient, open a Immediate window, enter the following and hit Run ...


dim x

set x = createobject ("mc_example_project.mc_example_class")
if x is nothing then msgbox "oh no"


x.Initialise_me  (World)
set test = nothing

This should show the Form from the Visual Basic project, you can then click on the buttons to send a command to the world, get a list of open worlds, and so on.

Ishnaf Australia Sun 29 Sep 2002 12:52 PM #4

ok, I've got Mushclient and VB and a Database talking together :P. Im making a little speedwalk project atm... I'll keep everyone posted as it should be useful because it combines a few VB subjects together.

Just editing this with new problems: I'm trying to create a 'search' to allow the user to search for an area through the VB Form. Any ideas? I'd like to be able to match part of the name of the area and i'm not quite sure how to do this in VB... Any ideas?

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Mon 30 Sep 2002 09:15 PM #5

Use "instr" which searches for one string inside another.