StartHotLink PowerScript function

Description

Establishes a hot link with a DDE server application so that
PowerBuilder is notified immediately of any changes in the specified
data. When the data changes in the server application, it triggers
a HotLinkAlarm event in the current application.

Syntax

<span>StartHotLink</span> ( <span>location</span>, <span>applname</span>, <span>topic </span>{, <span>bAnsi</span>} )

1	<span>StartHotLink</span> ( <span>location</span>, <span>applname</span>, <span>topic </span>{, <span>bAnsi</span>} )

Argument	Description
location	A string whose value is the location of the data in which a change of value triggers a HotLinkAlarm event. The format of the location depends on the application that contains the data.
applname	A string whose value is the DDE name of the server application.
topic	A string identifying the data or the instance of the application in which a change triggers a HotLinkAlarm event (for example, in Microsoft Excel, the topic name could be the name of an open spreadsheet).
bAnsi (optional)	A boolean identifying whether the string to get from the DDE server is in ANSI format. If bAnsi is NULL, false, or empty, PowerBuilder will first try to get the data in a UNICODE formatted string. If bAnsi is true, PowerBuilder will try to get the data in an ANSI formatted string.

Return Values

Integer. Returns 1 if it succeeds. If
an error occurs, StartHotLink returns a negative
integer. Values are:

-1 No
server
-2 Request denied

If any argument’s value is null, StartHotLink returns null.

Usage

After establishing a hot link, you can include the following
functions in the HotLinkAlarm event:

GetDataDDEOrigin – To
determine what application sent the notification of changed data
GetDataDDE – To obtain
the new data
RespondRemote – To acknowledge
receipt of the data

Examples

In this example, another PowerBuilder application
has called the StartServerDDE function and identified
itself as MyPBApp. This statement in your application
establishes a hot link to data in MyPBApp.
The values you specify for location and topic depend
on conventions established by MyPBApp:

<span>StartHotLink</span>("Any", "MyPBApp", "Any")

1	<span>StartHotLink</span>("Any", "MyPBApp", "Any")

This statement establishes a hot link with Microsoft
Excel, which notifies the PowerBuilder window when the data at row
1 column 2 of REGION.XLS changes:

<span>StartHotLink</span>("R1C2", "Excel", "Region.XLS")

1	<span>StartHotLink</span>("R1C2", "Excel", "Region.XLS")

Connection Information

StartHotLink – PB Docs 150