ACT! for Windows DDE Macro Language

ACT! for Windows has extensive support for DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). 
Using a third party macro language such as Word for Windows, Ami Pro, 
Excel, Lotus 123, and many others, you can write sophisticated macros 
to drive ACT!.

DDE allows you to copy & paste links  between ACT! for Windows and a client
application such as Word for Windows. However, using the DDEExecute command,
you can write macros that allow you to control ACT! as if you were typing 
into it directly. What follows is a reference to the keywords that you can 
send to ACT! and an explanation of how these keywords affect ACT!.

System Commands

Very often, you will want to send instructions to ACT! for Windows. 
The following commands do just that. Note that these are all "System" 
commands. A "System" command is a command that is sent to ACT! by opening 
a channel ACT! system channel as follows: 

ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")

Language Reference Keyword	

Function 

NEXTREC	

Causes ACT! to display the next contact in the current database.

PREVREC	

Causes ACT! to display the previous contact in the current database.

SAVE	

Saves the current database file.

SAVEAS	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Saves the current database file under a different name.

Parameters: filename - Name of the new file. May include the complete path
also. overwrite	- 1 if you want to overwrite any existing file with the 
given name, 0 if you want to abort the save if a file with the same name 
exists.

Sample Usage: DDEExecute(ChanNum, "SAVEAS C:\ACTWIN2\DATABASE\TEST.DBF 1")

This saves the current database as C:\ACTWIN2\DATABASE\TEST.DBF, overwiting 
the existing file, if any.

LOOKUP	

Performs a lookup.

Parameters: fieldname	- Name of the field for the lookup. 
Valid names are as follows: 

COMPANY 
FIRSTNAME 
LASTNAME 
CITY 
STATE 
ZIP
ID/STATUS 
OTHER	* Not supported yet 
MYRECORD 
EVERYONE 
PREVIOUS
CUSTOM	* Not supported yet 
PRIORITY 
KEYWORD

data	- This is the string that you want to match in the lookup. 
This field is not used if you are perfoming a lookup on MYRECORD, 
EVERYONE or PREVIOUS. 

Sample Usage: DDEExecute(ChanNum, "LOOKUP COMPANY CONTACT")
Performs a lookup of all records whose comapny name contains the
string "CONTACT".

RUN_QUERY	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Runs a query file.

Parameters: filename	- Name of the query file. May include the complete 
path also.

Sample Usage: DDEExecute(ChanNum, "RUN_QUERY C:\ACTWIN2\QUERIES\QEURY1.QRY")
Executes the query specified. 

FILE_OPEN	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Opens a file.

Parameters: filename	- Name of the database file. May include
the complete path also.

Sample Usage: DDEExecute(ChanNum, "FILE_OPEN C:\ACTWIN2\DATABASE\TEST.DBF")

GOTO

Selects records in the ACT! database.

Parameters:

	FIRSTCONTACT	Goto first contact in this group

	LASTCONTACT	Goto last contact in this group

	FIRST A		Goto first contact in group whose company
			starts with A

	LAST B		Goto last contact in group whose company 							starts
			with B 
NEW_CONTACT

Inserts a contact into the database.

Parameters:

	DEFAULT	Same as Insert - Default

	PRIMARY	Same as Insert - Primary

	ALL	Same as Insert - All

System Requests

For some tasks, you need to get information from ACT! for Windows. 
The following commands do just that. Note that these are all "System" 
commands. A "System" command is a command that is sent to ACT! by 
opening a channel ACT! as follows: 
ChanNumAct= DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")

Language Reference Keyword	

Function 

TOTAL_CONTACTS	

Returns the total # of contacts in this database

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
Total$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "TOTAL_CONTACTS") 
Total = Val(Total$) DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

TOTAL_GROUP	

Returns the total number of contacts in this group.

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
Total$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "TOTAL_GROUP") 
Total = Val(Total$) DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

CURRENT_CONTACT	

Returns the total number of contacts in this group.

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
Total$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "CURRENT_CONTACT") 
Total =Val(Total$) DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

GET_DB_FILE	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Returns the file name of the current ACT! database.

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
FileName$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "GET_DB_FILE")
DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

GET_NOTES	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Returns a string that contains up to the first 64K of notes.

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
NOTES$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "GET_NOTES")
DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

GET_HISTORY	(NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)

Returns a string that contains up to the first 64K of history.

Sample Usage: ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "System")
HISTORY$ = DDERequest$(ChanNumAct, "GET_HISTORY")
DDETerminate(ChanNumAct)

Database Commands

The ACT! DDE Link lets you access the current contacts information.  
You must open a channel with a command like the following:
ChanNumAct = DDEInitiate("ACTWIN2", "DATABASE")

You can then access any of the data fields being sure to use 
the correct absolute field names.

You can only DDEPOKE data onto the current contact screen.