| Here's how to use NetDDE to read and write values between Excel and
BASEstar. This was done with NT 3.5 and NT 4.0. There may be some
differences with other Windows.
On the first node:
Bring up Excel, select a worksheet cell, and then select Edit -> copy.
Bring up the ClipBook Viewer, and select Edit -> paste.
Enter a name for the page when prompted. e.g. excelbstr, and select
the "Share item now" box. This creates a DDE Share.
Select the "Start application on connect" under Sharing options.
Then on the second node:
Bring up DDE share by entering ddeshare in the "run" command
Select Shares -> Select Computer and enter the computer name of the
first node.
Select Shares -> DDE Shares, and double click on the share you created,
e.g. $excelbstr.
All the entries will be already filled in for you but you need to
make some changes. The topic names will be something like;
C:\chemwk\[BSTR.XLS]Sheet1
You need to remove the path to make this work with the B* DDE bridge.
( B* bug ?)
So you'll be left with topic names like;
[BSTR.XLS]Sheet1
Under Item Security, you will see that you are granting access only
to the worksheet cell you selected. (e.g. Sheet1!R2C2 ). You can
add access to other items. or "Grant access to all items"
Select Ok to save your changes.
Now bring up the clipboard viewer.
Select File -> Connect, and enter the computer name of the first node.
Highlight the share (e.g. excelbstr ) that appears in the new window,
and select Edit -> Copy
Now bring up the BASEstar Open Server DDE bridge, and select
Configure -> Client
Hit the Paste Link button, and your DDE path will appear. e.g.
\\NODE1\NDDE$|$excelbstr.dde!R2C2
where NODE1 is the computer name of the first node, and R2C2 indicates
row and column of the spreadsheet cell you selected.
Now you can proceed as usual to link to a BASEstar datapoint, and
vary the DDE path to link other cells to other datapoints. The same
DDE path works with POKE type links as well, to write data_point values
into excel.
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