Send DDE Execute

[hamelekim]

I'm having trouble getting this command to work. What I want to do is use adobe reader to open up a pdf file, but I tried an example first to see if it works.

I went to the filemaker website and tried "Sed DDE Execute[service Name: "iexplorer"; Topic: "WWW_OpenURL"; Commands: "www.filemaker.com"]

This is the example they give that will open up IE and go to the filemaker website. I put this in a script, and tried running it and nothing happened. This is on a windows system...am I doing something wrong?

[hamelekim]

The error code I get is 3. which says that the command isn't available. Now, I'm using remote desktop to a windows machine and working on the file there and running the scripts over remote desktop. Could this be a reason why it isn't working?

Edited March 30, 2006 by Guest

[hamelekim]

Could someone please help me? I am trying to open up a pdf file and then printing it. The names of the pdf files come from id numbers in the database though. so when you click on an id in a portal the pdf will open up and then it will print. I can't seem to find any good examples on how to use the DDE Execute. I tried the example given for opening internet explorer but it doesn't work, I get an error that it can't find or cannot use the program. Do I need to have certain permissions on the computer to be able to use this command?

[Ted S]

Is this for Windows or Mac?

[hamelekim]

It's for windows. I have been reading the adobe acrobat sdk about dde, but I am not sure how those commands are used with the dde command in filemaker. I still can't find the service name for adobe acrobat.

[Ted S]

Is the reason you want to use DDE because you want to automatically open and then automatically print too? Or would simply opening the PDF do?

[hamelekim]

Well, the client wants it to auto open and print the file. The files are in a folder over the network. So they click on a button in one of the portal rows, and the id number for that row is also the name of the pdf file. So it is supposed to open the file, then print the file. Before I was just creating a url link to the file and it would open in internet explorer and they could print from there but I can't do that in this case, or it would be better if I could just open it up with adobe acrobat reader.

[Ted S]

Try using Send Event instead of Open URL. Send Event sends commands to the operating system. In my opinion it is poorly named. It probably should have been called Send Command.

Take a look at this page:

http://www.planetpdf.com/forumarchive/49365.asp

I haven't tried it but it looks like you can set a command line switch to print a PDF.

[hamelekim]

I tried using that. I get 3 as my last error, which is something like cannot find the service on the computer. But adobe acrobat 6.0 is installed, and I used acrobat.exe... does it only work with the latest version of adobe acrobat/reader?

[hamelekim]

hah, I got it to work, thank! You were a huge help.