There are a few ways to do this but essentially they all seem to revolve around the CreateProcess api Function.

1. Write a helper DLL that wraps the CreateProcess function and can be easily called by the templates.
2. Find something that already does this so I don’t have to.

If you want to go for option 1 in clarion you might like to look into PowerRun from Berthume Software which is available for free download. And of course you can dig right in and make the function call directly. However, if there is something suitable around I much prefer to use that.

After a quick search I found these two options:

• CHP.EXE (Create Hidden Process) – http://www.commandline.co.uk/chp/
• hidden Start (hstart.exe) – http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/hstart.html

I tried CHP first and it certainly does what it says it will but I found I wanted the option to wait until the spawned task was finished. In comes hstart. Hstart is pretty awesome. Lots of options and it also, funnily enough, does what it says it will…

For anyone interested, this is the template code I ended up with for calling hidden commands in a clarion template:

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#GROUP(%RunCommandHidden, %Command, %TestMode=%FALSE),AUTO
#!
#DECLARE(%BatchFileName)
#! We need to write the command out to a batch file for execution because
#! the #RUN command seems to have issues with the length of the command!
#SET(%BatchFileName, 'run.bat')
#SET(%BatchFileName, FullName(%BatchFileName, 2))
#CREATE(%BatchFileName)
%Command
#CLOSE(%BatchFileName)
#! Now we call the batch file for execution
#! using cph.exe for "Create Hidden Process"
#IF(%TestMode=%FALSE)
  #RUN('hstart.exe /NOCONSOLE /WAIT ' & %BatchFileName),WAIT
#ELSE
  #RUN('hstart.exe /WAIT ' & %BatchFileName),WAIT
#ENDIF
#REMOVE(%BatchFileName)
#RETURN