Introduction to DDE

The DDE protocol allows any two Windows applications to communicate as client and server, where the client initiates communications with the server and the server provides data and services to the client.

Note: OpenEdge support for DDE is a deprecated feature. OpenEdge supports DDE for backward compatibility only. For inter-process communication on Windows platforms, consider using the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM). OpenEdge support for COM is documented in Using COM Objects in ABL.

OpenEdge supports DDE communications acting as a DDE client only. Using ABL (Advanced Business Language) DDE statements, your OpenEdge application can initiate and maintain communications with any other Windows application with DDE server capability. This communications includes exchanging data with the server and directing the server to execute server-defined commands. Your OpenEdge application can communicate with different server applications during a session, and can even access entirely new server applications without modifying your existing ABL code.

For more information on DDE concepts and facilities, see the Windows programming documentation on DDE.