Forum

DDE (dynamic data e...
 
Notifications
Clear all

DDE (dynamic data extract) with AbsoluteTelnet?

0 Posts
2 Users
0 Reactions
629 Views
(@hugow)
Active Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

Howdy's,

I just want to double check.. (I might have missed an option somewhere).. But AbsoluteTelnet doesnt support DDE (dynamic data extract) right? (kind of like "data scraping").

In my current emulation program, you can highlight an area of the terminal, copy, and then 'right-click' and use 'Paste Special' into Excel 2003/2007, and choose 'Paste Link'...

Thanks!
Cya
Hugo


   
ReplyQuote
(@bpence)
Member Admin
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 1375
 

And what exactly does this allow you to do?

Brian


   
ReplyQuote
(@hugow)
Active Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

It allows us to pull data from our legacy order system (telnet connections into a unix box with sales application) into Excel, and create - for example - 'Quotes' .. for faxing/emailing to customers etc.

Thanks


   
ReplyQuote
(@bpence)
Member Admin
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 1375
 

So you have excel macros that grab data from portions of the screen?


   
ReplyQuote
(@hugow)
Active Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

Not macro's no.. the relevant excel cells have the following 'statement' in them:

=Emulwin|'10.1.1.1'!'ScreenRect(0,9,1,9,9)'

Where 'EmulWin' is the application, '10.1.1.1' is the name of the window in the program, and 'ScreenRect(w,x,y,z)' is the area of the terminal to 'capture' from ...

This dynamically updates as long as the spreadsheet is open and the 'EmulWin' program is open -- EmulWin is a program called 'Tun EMUL for 32-bit windows' ... we bought it back in the 90's 🙂

Thanks


   
ReplyQuote
(@bpence)
Member Admin
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 1375
 

AbsoluteTelnet/SSH *can* be used as an activeX control. I wonder if we can figure out some way to get Excel to talk to it.

Brian


   
ReplyQuote
(@hugow)
Active Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

Yeah - that would certainly be an option to look at... Do you have any pointers (examples with AbsoluteTelnet etc) to get me running? (i am unfamiliar with ActiveX but I tend to learn quick)..

Txs


   
ReplyQuote
(@bpence)
Member Admin
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 1375
 

First, you need to figure out how Excel invokes ActiveX controls. This part, I'm unsure about. Every application tends to have its own methods/capabilities in this regard. Second, read up on the AbsoluteTelnet API. THis API is used both in the VBScript scripting language built into Absolute for automation (login, authentication, screen scraping, etc) and it is also the same API used by the ActiveX control. https://www.celestialsoftware.net/absolutetelnet-vbscript-api/ Third, there is an example program installed in the AbsoluteTelnet/SSH startup folder called 'AutomationTest' which is a C# program that uses AbsoluteTelnet/SSH as an ActiveX control. You can use it to test specific calls and to see what you get back.

This post was modified 1 month ago by bpence

   
ReplyQuote
(@hugow)
Active Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

Ok - thats great - thanks for the help!


   
ReplyQuote
Share: