why is this shellexecute failing?

[gusset]

i am trying to open a file in my default tif viewer but am having patchy results.

sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. the worst thing is that it was working yesterday and not today - and there was no change to the program or the network in the meantime.

i can't see anything wrong with the syntax. the filename and path is fine, because i can paste it into windows explorer and the image loads in the default viewer. however, the return value of the function is 2 (bad file path).

has anyone battled with this issue before, and succeeded, or even failed and knows why?

thanks!

 

[gusset]

in case it makes a difference, here is the syntax:

lngRetVal = ShellExecute(0, "open", strFullTifPath, _
vbNullString, vbNullString, vbNormalFocus)

 

[gusset]

i have noticed that if i pass in a UNC (\\MyServer\) rather than a mapped path (to my H:\ drive), it works (but not on all machines).

clearly, there is something going on that i don't know about.

waaaah

g

 

[Norris68]

Have a look at my FAQ

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?spid=222&sfid=2066

- it may help

 

[gusset]

thanks, norris. i am using shellexecute rather than shell so that i can run the code several times and the document will load into the existing instance of the shelled application.

i am under the impression that shell doesn't allow this, though i haven't tried it yet.

i found on the knowledge base a reference to spaces in the path messing things up - to the OS, it looks like command-line-type arguments. of course, i have my path/UNC in double-quotes to counter this problem.