DDE Execute

[Wotan]

I'm trying to automate a records export - from FMP 5 to Excel 97 - so that users can easily transfer information by means of a single button.

I can do this with the 'Export' script step - but this leads me into problems with the destination file name. If a user is exporting data on a daily basis to the .slk file, I'll have to come up with a way of deleting the old file before creating the new (every day and for every user).

I think a simpler way to achieve the result desired is to copy the data, then paste it into an Excel file (I think DDE should allow me to make a filename the product of a calculation; so I can make sure each file generated is unique).

I wanted to have Excel run a macro to paste the record data into the file (and another macro before this to paste the title data into the first row, etc).

Now, I can get all this to work - but only occasionally. For some reason, wholly inexplicable to me, the DDE command line

[RUN("macroname")]

works - but only occasionally!

I've tested the copy part of my script (by going to Notepad and pasting; yes, the copied data appears).

I've tested the macro part of the script (by going to the Excel file and running the macro; it, too, pastes the data from the clipboard).

Why, then, is it not working altogether? Or, bizarrely, only sometimes?

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wotan:

I'm trying to automate a records export - from FMP 5 to Excel 97 - so that users can easily transfer information by means of a single button.

I can do this with the 'Export' script step - but this leads me into problems with the destination file name. If a user is exporting data on a daily basis to the .slk file, I'll have to come up with a way of deleting the old file before creating the new (every day and for every user).

---

The export will overwrite the file each time. There should be no need to delete it first.

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Kurt Knippel

Consultant

Database Resources

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.database-resources.com

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

[Wotan]

Kurt,

You're right about the export overwrite. Thanks for that.

Trouble is, I still don't get the functionality I'm after.

With DDE I can paste info into a file and then run macros (to create titles, generate graphs, etc).

I'm wondering whether the problem might be that I'm running the solution under NT - which handles application memory differently from Windows. I think it 'seals' each application from any others running - or, at least, has the potential to do so (which would explain how my script works only occasionally - i.e. when the memory is not doing this). So sometimes I'm sending DDE messages that are going nowhere/rebounding off the memory partition.

Has anyone else experienced this problem in NT?

If so, is there a way round it that will ensure that the messages get through for every client (without having to reconfigure every one of their PCs)?

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wotan:

Kurt,

You're right about the export overwrite. Thanks for that.

Trouble is, I still don't get the functionality I'm after.

With DDE I can paste info into a file and then run macros (to create titles, generate graphs, etc).

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In this case, use Filemaker scripting to export the file and then run a DDE Execute to start the Excel macro. Then do everything else within Excel.

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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Kurt Knippel

Consultant

Database Resources

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.database-resources.com

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

[Wotan]

Thanks for the reply, Kurt.

Do you know any way of overcoming the NT problem?