:o I new with BaaN and I have several questions. Maybe someone can help me.

1. Can anybody tell me why AFS didn't work until we installed that BCK CD from SSA?

2. What is the relation between BCK and AFS?

3. What is DDC and how do I implement it using VB?

By AFS, generally we mean the stpapi.* calls, or the generated code from createdll, which also holds those type of statements.

AFS support was introduced to the standard program after the release of c4 as far as I know. You need the library ttstpapihand to run them. They were not working well until around Porting Set 6.1c.06.06 or so. Did you have to upgrade your porting set to get BCK working?

BCK is the predecessor to OpenWorld. The AFS code was introduced to work with these things, to allow calling standard sessions easily from an outside source. I image when you installed BCK, if you did not specifically have to upgrade the porting set then it would at least install working versions of the stpapihand library and standard program (what the Support Site calls 'Updates to the Standard Program'.) OpenWorld and BCK allow the connection into Baan, AFS is the coding that calls the sessions. They are generally used together but not necessarily. Since then, the AFS coding has taken on it's own life, you can use it to automate from within Baan or from without.

DDC is the Old Old (but widely used and still alive) way of communicating outside of Baan. It is entirely separate from BCK and OpenWorld. DDC Function Servers are very different than Application Function Servers (AFS). Mostly it's focus now is the shop floor control, talking to devices such as Handhelds on the floor, not Internet or other sources. DDC code, as generated by the DDC Function Generator, is not AFS code. It straightlines the standard source code into a callable / 3gl type of code, with ddc errors and it's own handling. What we have done lately (our company puts out a ddc middleware product), is instead of using the ddc generated code, we can instead substitute this with AFS code very easily where it's feasible. Sometimes the AFS, since they work on sessions, is too much overhead for what we need to do, and simple calls are easier. The DDC has been shrinking, SSA and middleware developers such as my company are favoring the newer method of OpenWorld, as the cost of that has come down significantly, and the DDC is no longer available in ERP LN. Generally you do not implement DDC directly with VB, you can call AFS code from within embedded VB or you can call Baan libraries from VB that have AFS calls in them. Search the boards for VB and AFS for samples of this. The DDC requires middleware to run.

Hope that explains some of the history and uses.

:D hey thanks ms. lisa!

i believe we did not have to update the porting set since ours was 6.1c.07.04. so if AFS will work without BCK it could have been that previously we didn't have the proper working versions of the stpapihand library and standard, and by installing that BCK CD it could have updated it.

thanks again ma'm, finally that cleared up some doubts. :o but ma'm if you don't mind i have several other questions about BCK:

1. How do I install that sample company that comes with the BCK CD?
2. And suppose it was successfully installed, where do i start? How do i know if BCK is working or how do i get it to work? I tried that C, VB and Java samples but none of the seems to work.

I'm sorry, I never used BCK, just OpenWorld. Maybe someone else knows how to set it up now, I thought it was pretty hard to find everything to run it anymore. Try a search here for BCK, there are more posts than I can summarize for you with lots of info.