Conference azur::mcc

4 weeks and no answer....

How can I use application Launching and pass
to the launched application the Entity-class and entity-name
and skip the 'applies_to' keyword?

      /Nils

    Nils there is a way to do what you are asking.  If you do not have
    an applies_to entry in the definition then it is assumed that
    it applies to all classes.  There is also an ARGUMENT value
    of Datafile which is supposed to allow the launch to create a
    file with the current selection information in it so that your
    application can use it.  I just don't know all of the details.
    I will see if I can find more info for you.
    
    jill
    

    re .2
    
    Any more info on the Datafile argument?
    
    The manual isn't to informative on the subject....
    
    What's the name of the data-file?  What info will be put into it?
    
    I really need this to get the customer happy....
    
    
    
    	/Nils
    
    P.S.
    Anyone how knows who implemented the application-launching so I can
    get in touch with him/her directly?

    Okey, I got Appl-launch with the <Datafile> argument to work after some
    testing,
    
    BUT I HAVEN'T STILL FIGURED OUT HOW TO GET THE INFORMATION I NEED...
    
    The only things I want to pass are the CLASS-name and INSTANCE of the
    selected entity(ies).
    
    Is this impossible to pass to the launched application?????
    
    
    P L E A S E   P L E A S E   P L E A S E   P L E A S E   P L E A S E   
    ===================================================================
    could someone give me an answer on this, as this is getting quite
    urgent now at the customer site as we're ramping up for full
    production.
    
    
    	/Nils

>    
>    The only things I want to pass are the CLASS-name and INSTANCE of the
>    selected entity(ies).
>    
>    Is this impossible to pass to the launched application?????

Yeah, the docs on this stuff are a little vague.  I think I can share some of
my hard-won arcane knowledge on this one... The datafile will ONLY contain
information about arguments that you asked for!   If you don't specify any
arguments (or if no objects meet the selection criteria), then it won't bother
creating a file.

You need to add some arguments to your .def file like:

	ARGUMENT: <Datafile> 
	ARGUMENT: <Snanode.!name> 
	ARGUMENT: <Mapfile>

or somesuch, THEN you should see some data in the datafile.

BTW: IN case you haven't already figured it out, the data file name is passed
as P1 to the invoked program or procedure.  So the first thing your .com file
should do is grab P1 & open it as a file for reading.

Hope this helps.

/doug

    re .5
    
    Thanks Doug for the quick answer but......
    
    
    The problem I have is that I want to launch an application which deals
    with either SNAnodes, SNMP or DECnetIV entities  (basically what the
    customer is managing).  The application has to be able to figure out
    what entity(ies) is/are selected in the map when it gets launched.  (I
    can live with the restriction that only one entity can be selected when
    launching)
    
    I can't have a .DEF file like 
    
    	    ARGUMENT: <Datafile>
            ARGUMENT: <Snanode.!.name>
    	    ARGUMENT: <NODE4.!.name>
    	    ARGUMENT: <SNMP.!.name>
    
    and hope that I'll get appropriate arguments passed.
    Having the above .DEF-file gives a
    	"attribute/argument is not valid with verb and entity"
    message popping up in a message-window.
    
    Well use the APPLIES_TO-keyword then, and have 3 different .DEF-files
    and put it under the Operations-menu under three different
    menu-alternatives you might suggest...
    
    Well I did that and (as stated in .0) it doesn't work for SNANodes; I
    don't get any entry in the operations-menu when a SNAnode is selected.
    
    So I'm stuck!
    
    The basic question is:  Can a launched application get information
    about what CLASS and which INSTANCE is selected in the map?
    
    
    	/Nils

Ok. 

I have *no* idea why SNAnode acts differently from other object classes...
Sorry.

Looks like the ONLY option you have for passing informatino for MULTIPLE
object classes is to fall back and use the V1.2 Application Launch
techniques.   I.e. you have to edit the MCC_RESOURCE.DAT file to do
essentially the same stuff that you do with the .def file.  
I am told that the V1.2 technique still works, but I haven't tested it.   

The resulting data file format will be different from the one that you get
with the V1.3 .def file technique, but you should be able to plow through
it looking for expected strings.

See older notes in this conference for examples of using the V1.2
application launch techniques.

Good luck.  I hope you can get it to work.

/doug

>>> Looks like the ONLY option you have for passing informatino for MULTIPLE
>>> object classes is to fall back and use the V1.2 Application Launch
    
    I didn't know 1.2 Application Launch techniques worked on 1.3 systems.
    That might be a solution even though the menu-items has to be
    in the Applications-menu, which ofcourse the customer doesn't want..,
    but I guess you can't get it all.
    
    I'll give it a try to see what I can get out of it.
    
    Thanks Doug for your answers!
    
    	/Nils