Example:
Displaying a busy dialog while running a program

In this example, we'll display a "busy" dialog while the AutoPlay application runs an external program. In this case, the program will be notepad.exe, which we'll use to display a readme.txt file. (We could also use a "File - Open" action to open the readme.txt file in the user's default viewer, but using a "File - Execute" action lets us make the AutoPlay application wait for the user to close the program before continuing with the rest of the action list.) Finally, once the user closes Notepad, we'll pop up a short "thank you" message for 3 seconds.

Here's what the action list looks like:

First we use a "Dialog - Busy" action to display a dialog that says the AutoPlay application is busy opening a program. (This is always a good idea before running an external program with the "Wait for return" option enabled, in case the user Alt-TABs back to the AutoPlay application...the "busy" dialog will explain why the AutoPlay application is just sitting there, idle and unresponsive.)

Next we use a "File - Execute" action to launch notepad.exe and pass the text file to it as a command line argument.

Note that the Wait for program to finish running before continuing option has been enabled so the action list will "freeze" until the user closes the notepad.exe program that this action opens. Once the user closes Notepad, AutoPlay Media Studio will proceed to the next action.

Next, we use another "Dialog - Busy" action to remove the "busy" dialog from the users screen. Remember that this action won't be performed until the user closes Notepad, because we told the "File - Execute" action to wait for Notepad to finish before continuing.

Note that the message in the Text field doesn't matter this time, since the action is just being used to remove the existing message.

Finally, we use a "Dialog - Timed Message" action to display a thank you message to the user for 3 seconds.

Here's a link to the finished example, as an AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0 actions XML file that you can import into an action list:

Displaying_a_busy_dialog_while_running_a_program.zip

(Note: save this file to your hard drive and use a tool like WinZip to extract the XML file)