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OutsideView DDE Server Capabilities

This document applies to OutsideView 7.1 and later versions. While some previous versions of OutsideView supported operation as a DDE server, the implementation in version 7.1 is incompatible with previous versions.

DDEInitiate

The application name argument must always be the string "OUTSIDE". There are two supported conversation topics: "SystemTopic", and "Macro". The "Macro" topic is for executing and exchanging data with Visual CommBasic macros, and the "SystemTopic" topic is for requesting extra information about the available Client interface. The application name and topic strings are not case-sensitive.

DDERequest

This command will provide different information, depending on the topic of the current conversation, and on the item requested.

If the topic is "SystemTopic"
Item	Return
Topics	List of available topics. Currently only "SystemTopic" and "Macro" are available.
SysItems	List of available items that can be sent in a request during a "SystemTopic" conversation.
Formats	List of data formats allowed by the OV32 DDE Server. Currently all data passed is interpreted as text.
TopicItemList	List of available items that can be sent in a request during a "SystemTopic" conversation (same as "SysItems").
If the topic is "Macro"
Item	Return
TEST1	The current value of the global variable TEST1 (see note below)
TEST2	The current value of the global variable TEST2 (see note below)

Note: TEST1 and TEST2 are global string variables in the Outside application DDE space. They are not Visual CommBasic global variables. The values contained in these variables may be accessed by any VCB macro (or other DDE client) currently engaged in a "Macro" topic conversation with a OV32 DDE server through DDERequest or DDEPoke functions.

Thus, if a client wished to remain decoupled from the currently implemented OV32 DDE Server interface, first the client should Initiate a "SystemTopic" conversation, and then request "SysItems" to find what interface information is available. Then the client could request information such as data format and available topics. The client could then be sure of what conversation topics are available. In most cases, however, this degree of generality will not be necessary.

DDEPoke

This command does nothing unless the conversation topic is "Macro", in which case the item must be either "TEST1" or "TEST2" to indicate one of the two global variables, and the second argument is the new value to assign to the respective global variable. Any other value passed for the item will cause the Poke command to be ignored. The item is not case sensitive (i.e. "Test1" or "test2" are accepted), and the second argument must be a string.

DDEExecute

Like DDEPoke, this command will do nothing unless the conversation topic is "Macro", in which case the argument passed to OV32 will be interpreted as the filename of the macro to be executed. If an absolute path is not given, then the path is interpreted relative to the <INSTALL_DIRECTORY>\Crystal Point\OutsideView\macro directory.

DDETerminate

This command takes the integer channel number of an open DDE conversation as an argument, and is a signal to OV32 that the DDE resources reserved for the that channel of conversation may be released and made available for other connections. A client should send this command when a conversation is complete.