PROCESS PROPERTIES

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4D v17.4

PROCESS PROPERTIES


PROCESS PROPERTIES ( process ; procName ; procState ; procTime {; procMode {; uniqueID {; origin}}} )

Parameter	Type	Description
process	Longint	Process number
procName	String	Process name
procState	Longint	Process state
procTime	Longint	Cumulative time taken by process in ticks
procMode	Boolean, Longint	If Boolean: Visible (True) or Hidden (False) If Longint (bit field): bit 0 = Visibility, bit 1 = Preemptive execution
uniqueID	Longint	Unique process ID
origin	Longint	Origin of the process

Description

The PROCESS PROPERTIES command returns various information about the process whose process number you pass in process.

After the call:

procName returns the name of the process. Some things to note about the process name:
- If the process was started from the Execute Method dialog box (with the New Process option selected), its name is “P_” followed by a number.
- If the process was started from a custom menu item whose Start a New Process property is checked, the name of the process is “M_” or “ML_” followed by a number.
- If the process was started by the Web server, its name is "Web Process#" followed by an UUID.
- If the process has been aborted (and its “slot” not reused yet), the name of the process is still returned. To detect if a process is aborted, test procState=-1 (see below).

procState returns the state of the process at the moment of the call. This parameter can return one of the values provided by the following predefined constants:

Constant	Type	Value	Comment
Does not exist	Longint	-100
Aborted	Longint	-1
Executing	Longint	0
Delayed	Longint	1
Waiting for user event	Longint	2
Waiting for input output	Longint	3
Waiting for internal flag	Longint	4
Paused	Longint	5
_o_Hidden modal dialog	Longint	6	Compatibility: This process state no longer exists starting with 4D v16. An equivalent status is returned by the PROCESS PROPERTIES command when procState=Waiting for user event and procMode=False.

procTime returns the cumulative time that the process has used since it started, in ticks (1/60th of a second) .
The optional procMode parameter can be a Boolean or longint type variable:
- If it is a Boolean type, it returns True if the process is visible and False if it is hidden.
- If it is a longint type, after the method is executed, it contains a bit field where the two first bits are set:
  - bit 0 returns the visibility property: set to 1 if process is visible, and 0 if it is hidden
  - bit 1 returns the preemptive mode property: set to 1 if process runs in preemptive mode, and 0 if it runs in cooperative mode.
    Note: This property is only useful in 64-bit 4D applications, where processes can be run preemptively or cooperatively. For more information, please refer to the Preemptive 4D processes section.
uniqueID, if specified, returns the unique process number. Actually, each process has attributed a process number to it as well as a unique process number per session. The unique number allows you to differentiate between two processes or two process sessions. It corresponds to the process number having been started during 4D’s session.

origin, if specified, returns a value that describes the origin of the process. 4D offers the following predefined constants (in the "Process Type" theme):

Constant	Type	Value	Comment
Apple event manager	Longint	-7
Backup process	Longint	-19
Cache manager	Longint	-4
Client manager process	Longint	-31
Compiler process	Longint	-29
Created from execution dialog	Longint	3
Created from menu command	Longint	2
Design process	Longint	-2
Event manager	Longint	-8
Execute on client process	Longint	-14
Execute on server process	Longint	1
External task	Longint	-9
HTTP Log flusher	Longint	-58
Indexing process	Longint	-5
Internal 4D server process	Longint	-18
Internal timer process	Longint	-25
Log file process	Longint	-20
Main 4D process	Longint	-39
Main process	Longint	-1
Method editor macro process	Longint	-17
Monitor process	Longint	-26
MSC process	Longint	-22
None	Longint	0
On exit process	Longint	-16
Other 4D process	Longint	-10
Other user process	Longint	4
Restore Process	Longint	-21
Serial Port Manager	Longint	-6
Server interface process	Longint	-15
SQL Method execution process	Longint	-24
Web process on 4D remote	Longint	-12
Web process with no context	Longint	-3
Web server process	Longint	-13
Worker process	Longint	5	Worker process launched by user

Note: 4D’s internal processes return a negative value and the processes generated by the user return a positive value.

If the process does not exist, which means you did not pass a number in the range 1 to Count tasks, PROCESS PROPERTIES leaves the variable parameters unchanged.

Example 1

The following example returns the name, state, and time taken in the variables vName, vState, and vTimeSpent for the current process:

 C_TEXT(vName) //Initialize the variables

 C_LONGINT(vState)

 C_LONGINT(vTime)

 PROCESS PROPERTIES(Current process;vName;vState;vTimeSpent)

Example 2

See example for Semaphore.

Example 3

You want to find out the visibility and execution mode of the current process. You can write:

 C_TEXT(vName)

 C_LONGINT(vState)

 C_LONGINT(vTime)

 C_LONGINT(vFlags)

 C_BOOLEAN(isVisible)

 C_BOOLEAN(isPreemptive)

 PROCESS PROPERTIES(Current process;vName;vState;vTime;vFlags)

 isVisible:=vFlags?? 0 //true if visible

 isPreemptive:=vFlags?? 1 //true if preemptive