ShellExecuteEx 7z Delphi - delphi

Question

So I'm trying to do a archive using delphi and ShellExecuteEx my code is :
Result := False;
DecodeDate(now,y,m,d);
NumeFisier := dir+'\Export_'+IntToStr(y)+'.'+IntToStr(m)+'.'+IntToStr(d)+'.zip';
FillChar(exInfo, SizeOf(exInfo), 0);
with exInfo do
begin
cbSize := SizeOf(exInfo);
fMask := SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS or SEE_MASK_FLAG_DDEWAIT;
Wnd := GetActiveWindow();
exInfo.lpVerb := nil;
exInfo.lpFile := PAnsiChar('C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe');
exInfo.lpParameters := PAnsiChar('C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe ' +'a ' + NumeFisier + ' ' + dir);
nShow := SW_SHOWNORMAL;
end;
if ShellExecuteEx(#exInfo) then
Ph := exInfo.hProcess
else
begin
ShowMessage(SysErrorMessage(GetLastError));
Result := true;
exit;
end;
while WaitForSingleObject(exInfo.hProcess, 50) <> WAIT_OBJECT_0 do
Application.ProcessMessages;
CloseHandle(Ph);
Result := true;
For some reason this only opens the Command Prompt and doesn't execute the archiving. How can I make it execute the 7z.exe file.
I tried with ShellExecute and it works great, but I have to check then the process is finished, so I'm stuck with ShellExecuteEx

Answer 1

There's no need to involve cmd.exe. That's the command interpreter. You want to execute a different executable so do that directly.
You don't want to use ShellExecuteEx since that has far more generality than you need. All that ShellExecuteEx is doing here is calling CreateProcess. You should do that directly and avoid the middle man. What's more, calling CreateProcess allows you to hide the console window easily. Pass CREATE_NO_WINDOW to achieve that.
Finally, there are better ways to wait than your code. Using MsgWaitForMultipleObjects allows you to avoid polling. And putting this code into a thread would allow you to avoid calls to Application.ProcessMessages.
procedure WaitUntilSignaled(Handle: THandle; ProcessMessages: Boolean);
var
retval: DWORD;
begin
if ProcessMessages then begin
Application.ProcessMessages;//in case there are messages already in the queue
while True do begin
retval := MsgWaitForMultipleObjects(1, Handle, False, INFINITE, QS_ALLEVENTS);
case retval of
WAIT_OBJECT_0,WAIT_ABANDONED_0:
break;
WAIT_OBJECT_0+1:
Application.ProcessMessages;
WAIT_FAILED:
RaiseLastOSError;
end;
end;
end else begin
Win32Check(WaitForSingleObject(Handle, INFINITE)<>WAIT_FAILED);
end;
end;
procedure ExecuteProcess(
const ExecutablePath: string;
const Arguments: string;
const CurrentDirectory: string;
const Wait: Boolean;
const CreationFlags: DWORD
);
var
si: TStartupInfo;
pi: TProcessInformation;
MyCurrentDirectory: PChar;
begin
ZeroMemory(#si, SizeOf(si));
si.cb := SizeOf(si);
if CurrentDirectory <> '' then begin
MyCurrentDirectory := PChar(CurrentDirectory);
end else begin
MyCurrentDirectory := nil;
end;
Win32Check(CreateProcess(
nil,
PChar('"' + ExecutablePath + '" ' + Arguments),
nil,
nil,
False,
CreationFlags,
nil,
MyCurrentDirectory,
si,
pi
));
try
if Wait then begin
WaitUntilSignaled(pi.hProcess, True);
end;
finally
CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
end;
end;