SAMPLE: DDESERV Demonstrates a Basic DDE Server

 Last reviewed: February 15, 1996
Article ID: Q97409
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows version 3.1

Quick and Easy DDE Server

Herman (Mr. DDE) Rodent Microsoft Developer Network Technology Group

Adding dynamic data exchange (DDE) server support to an application has never been easier. This article describes a code module you can include in your own application that makes adding DDE server support trivial. The code module makes use of the dynamic data exchange management library (DDEML) to implement the DDE protocol and provides the following features:

  • Full System topic support
  • An application programming interface (API) to dynamically add and remove topics and topic/item pairs
  • An API to dynamically add and remove DDE execute commands to a topic
  • Automatic tracking of conversations
  • Built-in execute command parser
  • Partial support for the Execute Control 1 protocol, which allows a result string to be returned in response to a DDE execute command request

This article requires considerable familiarity with DDE concepts---it's not a good place to start learning about DDE. Please refer to the Microsoft Windows version 3.1 Software Development Kit (SDK) Programmer's Reference, Volume 1: Overview, Part 2: Extension Libraries for a general introduction to DDE and DDEML. The following articles on the Microsoft Developer Network CD (Technical Articles, Windows Articles, OLE and DDE Articles) provide more detail on various DDE topics:
  • "DDE Execute Strings"
  • "DDE Hot Links"
  • "Performing DDE from a Dynamic-Link Library"
  • "Raw DDE"
  • "Supporting the Clipboard, DDE, and OLE in Applications"
  • "Supporting the DDE System Topic"

DDESERV shows how you can easily create a dynamic data exchange (DDE) server that supports the System topic and an Execute command set. You can build the server by using the STDDDE.C module included in the sample.

Download DDESERV.EXE, a self-extracting file, from the Microsoft Software Library (MSL) on the following services:

  • Microsoft Download Service (MSDL) 

          Dial (206) 936-6735 to connect to MSDL
      Download DDESERV.EXE (size: 54571 bytes)
  • Internet (anonymous FTP) 

          ftp ftp.microsoft.com
      Change to the \SOFTLIB\MSLFILES directory
      Get DDESERV.EXE (size: 54571 bytes)

Additional reference words: 3.10 softlib DDESERV.EXE
KBCategory: kbprg kbfile
KBSubcategory: UsrDde

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Last reviewed: February 15, 1996
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