Quick DDE 2.02 - Princen Information Technology

Quick DDE 2.02 - Princen Information Technology

by Bill Rollins

Published 1997-10-01 Printer-friendly version

Quick DDE is a feature-filled template set, allowing Clarion for Windows Developers to seamlessly use DDE in their applications.

Installation

The Quick DDE download file comes in Zip format. Inside the Zip file is a standard Windows installation program which places all the files where they need to be. After initial installation, the QUICKDDE.TPL needs to be registered. In addition to the normal files, a group of Word and Excel DOT and XLT files (DOT and XLT are template files for Word and Excel) containing macros (keyboard shortcuts and/or small Word and Excel programs) are also installed. These files are later shipped with your application to the customer, so they should be saved untouched before you start playing with them.

A demo program which illustrates some of the ways in which Quick DDE can be used is included as well, along with the app file for the demo so that you can see how Quick DDE was implemented. An uninstall program is provided in case you ever decide to remove Quick DDE from your machine.

Documentation

The documentation comes in the form of a Word Document that may be printed. I would like to also see a HLP file as well. Some of the manual was hard to follow since it was translated from Dutch to English, but overall it was fairly easy to understand. Following the manual will take you through setting up a basic DDE link to Word that will open Word and print the document with the information selected on the browse. A Quick DDE 2.02 FAQ is also available on Princen’s web site http://www.Princen-it.nl that answers additional questions.

What does Quick DDE do?

The Clarion for Windows Help file defines DDE as "DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) is a Windows Inter-Process Communication (IPC) protocol. A DDE "conversation" consists of two applications trading messages. Within the DDE conversation, one application acts as the client, the other as the server.

The application that starts the conversation, requesting data or services from the other, is the client. The contacted application is the server. The server must "register" with Windows that it has server capability.

Clarion for Windows lets you create both DDE clients and DDE servers. An application can be both. In fact, your application can act as both a client and server at the same time, though it requires two separate DDE conversations."

Although the CW help file makes it sound simple, it’s not. You start the hand-coding process of registering the server (your app) and then connecting to the Client. After a connection is established, you have to pass the data in the proper format to the Client.

Quick DDE takes care of all of this for you. The process is as simple as adding an extension template to your program. This takes care of the connection side of DDE. In my opinion, the biggest problem with DDE is working with the Client. Quick DDE handles this as well. You don’t have to be a Word expert to use Quick DDE. The Word DOT files that are provided deal with letting you add your applications fields to a Word document.

[Review Editors Note:The new 2.0x version of Quick DDE now uses OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) to communicate with Word and Excel instead of DDE. OLE is generally considered faster and more reliable than DDE, and is the method recommended by Microsoft for use with their MS Office products. Data communications with all other programs are still performed using standard DDE.

Also (in case you are wondering), while OLE can be much more difficult to program than DDE, the fact that Quick DDE is now using OLE under the covers instead of straight DDE doesn't really have any impact at all on the way the templates are used. Tom H.]

Quick DDE application planning

Quick DDE allows you to add extra fields not displayed in the window area to the list of fields which can be inserted into your Word Documents. You can also use memo fields, which improves flexibility.

Quick DDE also allows for the use of variable file names. After adding a Button to your browse, you could call another browse to fill the variable with the value of the document to be printed.

You should decide what approach to using Quick DDE you want to use when planning you application. I found at least two different uses in its implementation:

Printing the highlighted record from a browse.
This approach will allow you to print a single record for use in your Word document. Word will open, print the document using the data from your browse record, and then close.
Printing a group of records using a process procedure.
This approach gives the user the option of printing the same letter to more than one person or company. I found this technique to be the most useful and flexible. I tried it using record tagging then printing the tagged records. It worked well with one exception. After the last record printed, I was asked if I wanted to save the document. This is not really a problem unless your application is maximized, in which case you won’t be able to see the message box. My testing was done with Word for Windows 95 (Ver 7.0) and may not be a problem with Word 97.

I was not able to test Quick DDE with Excel.

[Review Editors Note: After modifying the Quick DDE demo to work with Excel as well as Word (I checked some boxes on the templates and recompiled), I was able to get a working connection between the demo and Excel. As I scrolled through the list boxes on the demo browse window, I could see values changing on my Excel spreadsheet in the background to reflect the currently selected record.

It was harder to do than linking with Word, though, and as the documentation mainly concentrates on using Word, I was pretty much on my own in getting it to work. (Excel appeared to lock up on occasion, mainly because it seemed to be waiting for data from the Quick DDE demo program.) I would suggest to Princen that they add a page or two to the manual dedicated to Excel to help users who may not be as familiar with the vagaries of OLE and DDE as I am. Once again, though, I did get it working in about 10-15 minutes (I was using Excel for Windows 95). Tom H.]

Implementing Quick DDE in your application

To use Quick DDE in your application is as easy as:

Add DDE Global Definitions Template in your application Global/Extensions

Global Definitions Global Extensions Templates

This extension does quite a bit of your work for you. One option allows for the clipping of all fields being sent to your Word document. You don’t have to worry that the customer can place fields next to each other, without having gaps between City and State for example. You can also choose to have an extra space added to the end of each field. These options may be overridden on a Field by Field basis at the procedure level.

Add the DDE Connections extension template to your "MAIN" procedure. A note here: Your main procedure MUST be MDI. There are no user options to complete on this template.
Add the DDE Connections extension template to each MDI child procedure that will utilize DDE.

DDE Connections Procedure Extensions Template

This extension allows you to fine tune your fields and add extra DDE fields to your procedure. If you decide not to use the dictionary format, you can define your own field picture.

Place a button on your procedure, go to the button actions tab, and you now have a new choice called DDE Actions. This will allow you to start Word or Excel, update all of your hot fields and set properties for calling Word from your application.

The above four steps will get you up and running on the CW side of the program in a matter of minutes. Since I once spent several hours hand coding a CW-to-Word DDE application, I was impressed with the speed of implementing QDDE into an application.

After the CW side is complete, you have to make Word communicate with the newly created DDE Server. This has to be a simple process for the end user, since they are the ones working with Word and placing the fields on the letters! Quick DDE does this quite well by adding a menu item to the Word Insert Menu called "Get Clarion Fields". As long as your application is open, this item is available to your user from Word. The user can then add the fields from your app anywhere in their document simply by choosing the field via the pulldown menu option.

Support

Technical support may be obtained by email. I tested the support system by sending an email and received an answer the next day that solved the problem. I did not test support through CompuServe. The Princen web site is worth visiting (http.://www.Princen-IT.nl/Clarion), they have several useful FREE templates and FAQ’s are posted as well.

Reviewer Overall Impression

Quick DDE provides a smooth means of utilizing DDE in your CW applications. The templates were easy to use.

For interfacing with MS Word and Excel, the included DOT/XLT files fill the gap between the two products for you. The overall flexibility of the product makes it well worth using. By viewing the code in the include files, it should be easy to use with other DDE enabled applications. Once you follow through the User’s Manual, most questions will be answered for you.

[Review Editors Note: By far the most popular use for this type of product is to allow your programs to interact with Microsoft Word, which is the way the reviewer tested and rated it. However, you may find there is a lack of specific instructions and examples for Excel. Contact Princen for more information on using Quick DDE with Excel. Tom H.]

Category	Product Score
Ability to do the task	Very Good
Ease of use	Very Good
Ease of Installation	Very Good
Documentation	Good
Technical Support	Good
Modifies Shipping Templates	No
Black-Box DLLs/LIBs	No

Quick DDE is available through Princen Information Technology. The purchase price is $99.00 check or Master Card (no Visa) or may be registered through CompuServe SWREG # 15890 for $114.00.

Princen Information Technology
Amsteleindstr 100
5345 HB Oss
The Netherlands
Email: Sales@Princen-IT.nl

Review Comments from George Petrove, Princen IT

First please note the Internet address for the Quick DDE FAQ and site is always: http://www.Princen-IT.nl/Clarion

Please always put the /Clarion directory in the address, otherwise you will get a Dutch site, where you can't find the way to the Clarion tools site.

Next I want to say that we are busy with a free update - Quick DDE 2.03, that will address some of the issues that you mention and a few more. It will include:

Better documentation - including Excel chapter.
The example will be extended to work with Excel
The Quick DDE FAQ will be included with the Setup.
Improved OLE support
Better OLE instances control (Word/Excel)
New Word macro for faster CW fields retrieve
Allow the programmer to restrict sending DDE fields
Many internal optimalisations
Some minor Word problems

We are also planning Quick DDE version 3.0 to be released in a few months that will:

Contain support for WordPerfect!
Support RTF (Rich Text Format) that will allow to transfer full tables to Word/WP. This is actually a big improvement because we are going to use our own DDE library instead of the standard CW. This way we have much more control of DDE.
Support for Images as DDE fields - you will be able to send any Image Blob as field to Word/WP
Support for Copy (from your CW app) and Paste As Link directly in Word/Excel/WP (no need for macro's)
Be even more OOP (internal)

Further we are also working hard on our Web Site to include direct *SECURE* ordering for faster software delivery.

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942