Automated Printing

Hi there please can anyone tell me how i can do this.

I would like to find a way to automatically print a picture of the active workspace of a 4H Gold Chart every 4 hours and save that picture automatically to a folder on the desktop.

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance...

This function will take a capture of the current chart. If you put it into an EA and trigger it on every new bar, it should do what you want. I am sure somebody has already done an EA - do a search.


bool WindowScreenShot(string filename, int size_x, int size_y, int start_bar=-1, int chart_scale=-1, int chart_mode=-1)

I believe that there is one on cobra's thv thread

Thank you for your kind help.

I have tried doing the recommended searches but with no joy and unfortunately i have no idea to program and implement the code you kindly sent me.

Would you be able to offer me any other advise?

I just want to save a picture to my hard drive every time a 4 hour candle closes.

Thanks in advance.

I had some spare time and you seem to be a well mannered fellow (unlike many others on this board) so I put together this EA. The screen shots will be in the experts/files subdirectory. Just attach the EA to the chart and timeframe desired in the normal manner.

Thank you sir for your kind help and nice comments.
I cant wait to try out your EA tomorrow.

I am just curious - if i apply to EA to a 4 hour chart - i am assuming it will take a screenshot picture. Will it save that somewhere?

Would it be very difficult to modify the EA slightly so that it can do the following please (if you have the time) :

1. Apply EA to timeframe (in my case - 4 hour)
2. Every time a 4 hour bar prints - perform a save as picture
3. Select the Active Chart for the Save as Picture settings
4. Store picture on desktop

What do you think?

Maybe you can help me. The actual layout of my screen is as follows which is what i use for monitoring.

However - for the purpose of this exercise - i just want the 4 hour chart saved as a picture as an active workspace including the terminal, etc....

I have included 2 pictures.

1st picture is my monitoring
2nd picture is the kind of thing i would like to save as a picture

Perhaps this is not possible (i am not sure) please let me know if its not.

what do you mean by "save it on the desktop"?

Do you mean just save it as a file onto the desktop or do you want to set it as the desktop wallpaper?

Witout any additional efforts it is only possible to save files in subfolders of .../metatrader 4/experts/files/ but with some additional windows API programming (or some external scripts in VBS or AutoIT) it can be moved to whereever you need and additional actions can be performed.

Please use what I gave you for a week or two before asking for anything else. I believe it does all the things you are requesting already except saving it to the Desktop and I have no intention of providing that capability. You might be able to find another program on the internet to copy files from one place to another on a scheduled basis. I have no interest in writing such a program.

//----

hey slim.... you can save the screenshots to your desktop by making a shortcut to your .../metatrader 4/experts/files folder and placing that shortcut on your desktop....


to my knowledge the screen shot function will only save the chart the screenshot function is attached to.... nothing else..... but you can attach the ea's containing the code to as many charts as needed provided the ea is coded properly.... the filename must be unique for each symbol and timeframe.... this is best done by including the symbol and timeframe in the filename.....

make sure you have the x and y pixels correct for your size chart.... you'll have to work that out thru trial and error....

keep tabs on the size of your files folder.... those screenshots will add up.... move them all out occasionally.....

all of the above works, or at least does for me every open market hour..... and actually non market hours for that matter.....h

Thank you everybody for your kind responses.

Codemesiter - i followed your advice and used the EA for a week plus and it works just nicely and does exactly what i need - thank you very much for taking the time to program this.

I love this forum - everyone is so kind and helpful.

Thanks again everyone.
SLIM

I have revised the code to use unique files for the image. This corrects a problem with using the EA on multiple charts and only getting one image.