iCustom and OnTimer

[honest_knave]

I'm not sure if this is already documented, but I thought I'd share my findings from experimenting with iCustom and OnTimer.

Basically, it doesn't work.

Consider the following simple code:

double TestBuffer[];
double TestValue = 1;

int OnInit() {
   IndicatorBuffers(1);
   SetIndexBuffer(0,TestBuffer);
   EventSetTimer(5);
   return(INIT_SUCCEEDED);}

void OnDeinit(const int reason) {
   EventKillTimer();}

int OnCalculate(const int rates_total,
                const int prev_calculated,
                const datetime &time[],
                const double &open[],
                const double &high[],
                const double &low[],
                const double &close[],
                const long &tick_volume[],
                const long &volume[],
                const int &spread[]) {

   TestBuffer[0]=TestValue;
   return(rates_total);}

void OnTimer() {
   TestValue++;}

 

If you now call this with a simple iCustom:

 Print(iCustom(NULL,0,"TestIndicator",0,0));

 

It will return 1 every time i.e. the OnTimer event of TestIndicator is not firing.

 

If you add the TestValue++ into the OnCalculate event, the returned iCustom value steadily increases.

[[Deleted]]

Thanks for sharing.

My understanding is that Indicator initiated via iCustom does not listen to any event. It just runs OnInit once and OnCalculate every time before the buffer access.

[honest_knave]

That would seem to be the case - thanks for confirming my suspicions

[Ian Venner]

if you put a print() in OnTimer it is not executed when the indicator is called via iCustom so the OnTimer event does not work when you use iCustom.