nsisDDE 1.1

Presentation

nsisDDE is a small NSIS plugin that sends DDE client requests to currently running applications with DDE server matching the "server application name / topic name" pair you provide

You can typically use it to:

close running instances of an application (eg: to prevent EXE and DLL to be in use)
bring a running application to the foreground
have an application open a document

Download

Source code included. See license of use below

nsisDDE 1.1 (downloaded 3058 times)

Check out also all my other free & useful NSIS plugins!!

ReadMe file

nsisDDE 1.1 -- Small NSIS plugin to sends DDE client requests
Web site: http://wiz0u.free.fr/prog/nsisDDE
---------------------------------------------------------

nsisDDE sends DDE client requests to currently running applications with DDE
server matching the "server application name / topic name" pair you provide

You can typically use it to:
- close running instances of an application (eg: to prevent EXE and DLL to be in
use)
- bring a running application to the foreground
- have an application open a document


Notes
-----
* For unicity, if you include a DDE server in your application, it is better to
	name it with a globally unique identifier generated with GUIDGEN.exe like
	"YourAppName-{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}", instead of a short name
	like "WinWord"
* nsisDDE.dll should be used for ANSI NSIS installers
* nsisDDEW.dll should be used for Unicode NSIS installers
* According to DDE specifications, nsisDDEW makes Unicode DDE requests only if the
	target DDE server is also Unicode ; otherwise DDE requests are ANSI.


Usage
-----
nsisDDE::Execute [<options>] "<appname>" "<commands>"

<appname> is the name the application uses for its DDE requests
	(this is not case sensitive and not necessarily the name of the program executable)
	ex: Excel, IExplore, ...

<commands> can be any valid DDE request, specific to the application
	(this is usually one or more opcode strings enclosed in single brackets [...])
	ex: [open("%1")][print()], [SetForeground], [Quit]...

<options> are:
			if many running applications respond to the appname/topic pair,
	/ALL	send the request to all of them (default)
	/FIRST	send the request only to the first of them that responded
	/LAST	send the request only to the last of them that responded
		note: this is not necessarily the instance runned first or last

	/TOPIC=<topicname>
			indicates the DDE topic name (default is "System")
			(this is not case sensitive)
			
	/TIMEOUT=<seconds>
			if some applications are hung or takes too much time to reply,
			or on the contrary, you want to give them more time to reply,
			the timeout defines the maximum time nsisDDE will wait (default is 2)

Return Value
------------

nsisDDE returns an integer status on the top of the stack
Possible status are:
	0:  No matching DDE server was detected or they refused the request
	>0: number of DDE servers that were detected and accepted the request
			(if /FIRST or /LAST was used, it cannot obviously be more than 1)
	-1: Invalid option parameter
	-2: Not enough parameters
	-3: Could not create DDE client window


Sample scripts
--------------
	; close WinWord
	nsisDDE::Execute "WinWord" "[FileQuit()]"

	; leave 5 seconds maximum for apps to responds
	; (used only if some apps are hung or takes time to poll their message queue)
	nsisDDE::Execute /TIMEOUT=5 "WinWord" "[FileQuit()]"

	; some apps like MS-Access expect another topic than "System"
	nsisDDE::Execute /TOPIC=ShellSystem "Msaccess" "[SetForeground]"


Changelog
---------
v1.1: added Unicode variant
v1.0: first public release


License
-------
Copyright (c) 2005-2010 Olivier Marcoux

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no
event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this
software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including
commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the
following restrictions:

    1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim
that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an
acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not
required.

    2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
misrepresented as being the original software.

    3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.