Pass variable to Macro from toolbar

Question

I have far too many little macros in separate files and run by toolbar buttons. I would like to add them all to one macro file and pass a variable in choosing the appropriate macro function to run. Below is what I would like to do but PHP flavored. How can I produce this desired effect in Extra basic? 
 Passed in like: url.php?picMacro=2 
 <?php $picMacro = $_GET['name']; switch ($.picMacro) { case "1": macroFunction1(); break; case "2": macroFunction2(); break; case "3": macroFunction3(); break; default: someFunction(); } ?>

Jeff B · Accepted Answer

Hi David, 
 Tom and I spoke about this more and have worked it out. You do want to use "Run Macro". Using Tom's example above the button assignment syntax should be (note that there are no quotes in the "Macro:" command.) 
 
 This will call the "Hello.ebm" macro and pass the parameter "hello" 
 The Command$ will pass the parameter to the macro and thus allow you to name the function you want to call in the button. 
 So in Tom's sample code above, the button defined in this example will pass hello to the Command$ variable and will call the function HELLO in the macro. 
 Note the syntax for this dialog: 
 Preferred syntax: "mymacro.ebm notepad.exe" will run mymacro.ebm and pass "notepad.exe" on the command line. Acceptable syntax (will work, but not recommended): "mymacro notepad" will run mymacro.ebm and pass "notepad" on the command line. Illegal syntax: "mymacro notepad.exe" will attempt to find "mymacro notepad.exe" and will fail. 
 Regards, 
 Jeff B.

Jeff B · Answer

Hi David, 
 It could be possible to create an application that may accept command line style parameters that the application could then parse and call the master Extra! Basic Macro, but that would be completely outside of the product. The ebm macros are designed to be called and perform a specific function. This functionality is not possible in the macro engine at this time. 
 Regards, 
 Jeff B.

Tom Fitzgibbon · Answer

Hi Dave, rather that "Run Macro" try "Run Application" (under miscellaneous) and then set the command line to execute "path\ebrun.exe" "path	he_macro.ebm" "the_macro_params" 
 e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Micro Focus\Reflection\ebrun.exe" "%Userprofile%\documents\Micro Focus\EXTRA!\My Macros\Hello.ebm" my function name 
 in your macro you can retrieve the macro parameter(s) via the variable command$, in this case Command$ = "my function name" 
 The big problem with this approach is that you can not call a "string", i.e. Call "Hello" 
 will not work, it has to be 
 Call Hello 
 So you will need a Select Case block to call the various function/subroutines, 
 e.g. 
 Declare Function HELLO() 
 Sub Main Select Case UCASE(Command$) Case "HELLO" call Hello Case Else Msgbox "Function not found" End Select End Sub 
 Function HELLO() Msgbox "Hi David" End Function 
 Now having said all of that, I don't currently have Extra! installed, but if you play around with the syntax on the command line (in terms of the double and maybe single quotes), you will get this to work. 
 Note: While you are playing with this you may see rogue instances of ebrun in the task manager (from failed attempts). These may prevent subsequent attempted launches from working, you should kill these ebrun.exes and extra.exe and also ebmngr.exe, so that each attempt is a clean one with no previous attempts getting in the way. 
 As for using the dialog approach that is a completely different can of worms :-) Dialogs can be quite tricky depending on how deep you wish to get into them in terms of Modal/NonModal and event handling 
 Tom

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