Disable PlaySound() if running in Strategy

[RandyT]

Is there a State flag I can use or something similar to avoid playing audio when an indicator is being used in a strategy? (Indicator I am developing)

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello RandyT,

Thanks for your post.

Out of box, an indicator does not have any knowledge if it is added to a strategy. As a workaround, you could create an AddOn with static methods/variables for a means to have the strategy and the indicator communicate and share if that indicator is added by the strategy. C# code using GetHashCode() could be used to uniquely identify a specific instance of a NinjaScript object.

An example for creating an AddOn for shared methods can be found below.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?p=457104#post457104

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

[bltdavid]

Is there a State flag I can use or something similar to avoid playing audio when an indicator is being used in a strategy? (Indicator I am developing)

You can invent this yourself.

Why not create your own public non-browsable boolean property in your indicator that controls whether sound is played or not?

When adding the indicator to the strategy, the strategy programmer explicitly sets this property to make the indicator 'go silent'.

Problem solved.

[RandyT]

Thanks bltdavid,

This is the way I have handled this. Seems a bit messy.

Is there a way to may parameters optional when loading an indicator from a strategy? Just use the defaults? That would allow me to keep the PlaySound() false and load the indicator without passing a string of parameters every time. Not a huge deal, but generally I am just wanting default parameters for these indicators anyway.

[bltdavid]

Thanks bltdavid,

This is the way I have handled this. Seems a bit messy.

Is there a way to may parameters optional when loading an indicator from a strategy? Just use the defaults? That would allow me to keep the PlaySound() false and load the indicator without passing a string of parameters every time. Not a huge deal, but generally I am just wanting default parameters for these indicators anyway.

A public property which is non-browsable does not get added as an argument, so calling the indicator from a strategy does not change in any way. That is, you want a public property specifically coded such that it is not added to the property grid or the parameter list.

Are you sure you know what 'non-browsable' means?

[Browsable(false)]
public bool Silence { get; set; }

creates a public property called 'Silence' which defaults to false.

This property, although public, is not added to the parameter list of your indicator.
Why? Read about Browsable and NinjaScriptProperty (which is new for NT8) attributes.

In your indicator, you check the value of this property before calling PlaySound, for example, setup a wrapper function, like this,

private void MyPlaySound(string filnam)
{
    if (!Silence)
        PlaySound(filnam);
}

In your strategy, load your indicator like this,

MyIndicator ind = MyIndicator(...);
ind.Silence = true;
AddChartIndicator(ind);  // optional

Make sense?

Good luck!