Does anyone know if there is a way to get FileMaker to interface with QuickMail on a PC ? We have written an AppleScript to do this on the Mac but haven't got a clue about where to start with the PC version.

I don't know what Quick Mail is, but WinBatch on the PC can work miracles and you probably can make it the bridge between FM and QM. You may also need something like the Troi Files plugin.

You can download a demo from www.wilsonware.com

Cheers Steve,

QuickMail is a non MAPI compliant E-Mail package primarily for Mac. I have downloaded a demo copy of WinBatch and have written a script for it that opens QuickMail but how do I call it from FileMaker ?

Regards,

David.

There are at least 2 ways I know of: The first is the Miscellaneous Script step (near the bottom of the script step window) is 'Send DDE Execute'. Its got a couple of parameters where you can specify the EXE.

The 2nd method, which I use, is to get a copy of the Troi Files plugin. One of its commands is 'Launch Pgm' (or something like that) that will launch an EXE. What I've done, because I needed 2 way communication between FM and WB is to create a temporary file that is used by both to pass commands and answers back and forth.

You can do this without any plug-in in Windows!

As Steve suggested, one option is to use the "Send DDE Execute" script step to start an application and send DDE ("Dynamic Data Exchange") parameters to it. But I've found it very hard to find documentation for DDE syntax, even for Microsoft Office products, which support the "full" DDE language.

There is another method however, that can make FileMaker run any program from within Windows. It is the "Send message" script step. If you select from within a script and choose the "open document/program" option together with either "Field" or "Text", the command that exists in either the field or the string you write for the "Text" option, will be run by Windows. This creates the effect of running the same command/string from the Start->Run line in Windows.

So, first you should find out what command to write in the Start->Run line to start your Quickmail application (with appropriate parameters). You can also just write the entire path to where the program is installed. Then you can just add that line to the Send message script step and you're home!

The good thing with the "Send Message" script step is that if you use a field, it gets totally dynamic! So you can supply different parameters and start different programs w/ differents paramaters depending on some record or global, it's up to you!

Good luck!

/Daniel