DDE Manager Written by Chris Means (cmeans.at.intfar.dot.com) (Updated Saturday, June 21, 2003) Copyright © 1994 - 2003, intFAR Productions. All rights reserved. An Add-On for Commence® Corporation's namesake Personal Information Manager Commence®, that extends its functionality via DDE.

How it works

An Agent in Commence sends a DDE message to DDE Manager, telling it which set of commands to run, and what values to use. DDE Manager then performs the actions in the background, and waits for more commands to arrive.

Version 1

Sample Script

Revision History

Version 2

Sample Script

Revision History

Pricing

Upgrades

Value Added Resellers

Ordering

Download Area

Version 1

Version 1 allowed for Fields in Items of one Catetory to be SUMmed, AVERAGEd or COUNTed and to have that computed value placed in either the same or another Category. This gave users of Commence with DDE Manager the ability to have summary level data available in any Category, and to have it constantly updated as they either modified the detail data, selected various menu options, or other triggers occurred.

As Commence matured, DDE Manager kept pace by incorporating the ability to handle decimals, and currency characters.

Sample Script

SUM:Phone Log,Duration,Project,(%Name%),Phone Time,CTCTI,,Refers to,Contact,Relates to,Project,(%Name%)

The above script would be placed inside the Message Text area of a Send DDE Agent.

When fired, the result would be that a Filter would be applied to the Phone Log category, limiting the entries to those connected to the (%Name%) item in the Project category. The sum of the Duration field from the resulting Phone Log view would be placed into the Phone Time field of the related Project item.

Statement syntax is: Function:Source,Target,Filter

Though powerful, using the above syntax to perform a relatively simple SUM operation, could be quite difficult. You will also notice that given the above statement syntax, the only thing you could do with DDE Manager was a SUM, AVERAGE or COUNT operation. This however, is not true for Version 2 of DDE Manager.

Version 1 Revision History

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Version 2

With the release of DDE Manager v2 came:

• New built-in functions ;
• Use of Commence Categories to store and manage the DDE Scripts ;
• Practically an unlimited number DDE commands grouped together as one Script ;
• Enhanced customized development ;
• Greater ease of distribution to client sites for VARs and inhouse developers ;
• Two distinct implementations:

  Developer

  1. Intended for DDE Script authors ;
  2. Full GUI (Graphical User Interface) for debugging ;
  3. Received, Queued, Running, Completed and Errors queues ;
  4. Scripts can be paused, stepped through or aborted ;
  5. Displays DDE Commands before and after the built-in fuctions are computed ;
  6. Shows which lines have been executed, which ones not, and which line an error occurred on ;
  7. Provides Commence DDE Error Codes.

  User

  1. Intended for DDE Script users ;
  2. Runs the same DDE Scripts as Developer ;
  3. Does not provide any debugging facilities (only reports errors if they occur) ;
  4. Works unobtrusively in the background (either as a hidden icon, or as an icon in the Windows 95 System Tray).

A VAR (Value Added Reseller) of Commence, might use Developer to build DDE Scripts, but instead of distributing the Developer package with the customized database, they would provide the User release. This would keep the purchasing user from modifying and customizing the DDE Scripts (with the help of Developer), and would let the Scripts execute faster, as there would be none of the debugging facilities of Developer to use up system resources.

Sample Script

[ViewCategory(Phone Log)]
[ViewFilter(1,CTI,,Refered to,Person,(%Name%))]

;Sum up all the Duration entries.
[EditItem(Person,(%Name%),Total Phone Time,@_SUM(Duration))]
[EditItem(Person,(%Name%),Average Call Length,@_AVERAGE(Duration))]
[EditItem(Person,(%Name%),Number of Calls,@_COUNT())]

;Display a message on the screen.
[FireTrigger(ShowMessage,(%Name%),made @_COUNT() calls totalling @_SUM(Duration) minutes,,,,,,,)]

;Apply an additional filter
[ViewFilter(2,F,,Billable,Checked)]
[EditItem(Person,(%Name%),Total Billable,@_SUM(Billable Total))]


This DDE Script basically does four things:

1. Filter the Phone Log category to only entries where (%Name%) is the connected person.
2. Update the (%Name%) Person item with summarized data from the connected Phone Log items.
3. Use a ShowMessage agent to display some of the summarized information in a dialog box.
4. Apply an additional filter for just Billable entries in the Phone Log, and update the same Person item with a sum of the Billable Total field in the Phone Log.

The script would be triggered by a Commence Send DDE Agent action that would simply specify the category and name where the Script was located, and the value for the (%Name%) variable.

Version 2 Revision History

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Pricing

All monies are in United States of America currency.

Upgrades

VARs

• Volume discounts ;
• Site licenses ;
• Custom Development ;
• Support Contracts with a 1 (800) telephone number.

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Ordering

Visa/MasterCard

Please Include:

• Full Name and Phone Number
• Email Address
• Card Number, Type and Expriration Date
• Version, Release and Platform of DDE Manager
• Number of Copies

Check or (International) Money Order

Please Include:

• Full Name and Phone Number
• Email Address
• Version, Release and Platform of DDE Manager
• Number of Copies

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Download Area

These files are part of the distribution set for DDE Manager v2.0 Developer. To help assist in your decision about whether or not DDE Manager is for you, and to help familiarize yourself with its capabilities, these files can be downloaded and installed on your PC for your review.

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