BaaN IV in a Unix environment creates a temporary file in the $BSE/tmp directory for any report.

Is it possible to specify and file extension for this temporary file?

The reason is that if you could specify an extension like [temporay_file].csv and utlize this in WebTop the file would be parsed for excel inside the iexplore browser for the customer. This would dramatically enhance the quality of the report.

Or are there any ofther suggestions to accomplish this?

You can write your own device driver to convert the baan report into html, rtf, etc. using ttstpconv. There are tools to take a report to excel format (~Vamsi's version) and code for a device driver in the code and utilities form. Other tools are available for file conversion - we usually just write an excel version of the report for the users. I think you can combine these to do what you want.

Great Advice... Tried to implement this without a problem for the bw environment, works great!

However, this does not work in the Webtop environment.
I used the c:\windows\temp directory as the target. As fas as I know every windows environment has this directory. The file arrives fine, however, the line app_start(xxxxx) seems to fail.

Any suggestions?

Okay - you got it working in the BW environment and I assume you are now trying to use it in webtop, correct? First I would contact Baan support to see if app_start works in webtop. You might also want to post the relevant code. A webtop expert(and that is not me) might see something that needs to change.

Refer to the link - Client file access overview (http://www.baanboard.com/programmers_manual_baanerp_help_functions_client_file_access_overview)

The site's online help is not update but here is more info -

SSA ERP LN 6.1 Programmers Guide
Client file access overview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use these functions to perform various operations on client files – for example:

to open, read, write to, close, and delete files on a client
to show a file open or directory chooser dialog on a client
to transfer files between client and server
to retrieve client file information
to create and delete directories on a client
to start an application on a client
to retrieve client hostname and IP address
Note
You can use most of these functions both with the Baan Windows and with the Webtop client. However, some functions are only supported for the Baan Windows client and therefore deprecated.

The file arrives fine, however, the line app_start(xxxxx) seems to fail.

Hi,
app_start() will not work on webtop.
Try start.application.local() instead. It's also located in ttdllbw.

Hope this helps,
Andreas

Andreas,

start.application.local() is a LN Tools function and albertsmid is on Baan-4 version.

I just checked and the start.application.local is now in my ottdllbw. I do not know if it works - still using app_start.

Mark,

I am surprised that you have it, they might have backported it for WebTop support. The function is not available in the online programmer's manual on the site here.

Here is more info from the latest manual -

SSA ERP LN 6.1 Programmers Guide
start.application.local()
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syntax
boolean start.application.local( string commandline, boolean waitFlag, ref long exitCode, [const string verb] )
Description
This starts the client application specified in the commandline argument.

Arguments
commandline
This specifies the command that starts the application. If commandline does not include a directory path, Windows searches for the executable file in the following directories, in the order shown below:

The Windows system directory.
The Windows directory.
The directories listed in the PATH environment variable.

This argument may also contain the full pathname of a local document. In this case the application associated with this document extension will be started.

The commandline parameter may one or more times include the string ${BSE_TMP} which indicates the ${BSE}\tmp directory in case of Baan Windows or Windows temp directory in case of Webtop.

waitFlag
Indicates whether the application must wait for the local application to exit.

exitCode
Exit code of local application. Only contains a valid exit code when the waitFlag attribute was true

verb
When the commandline argument contains a document pathname, the optional verb argument may contain the action to be performed on this document. The default action is "open". Another useful verb is: "print". In case this argument is supplied, the waitFlag argument will be ignored and the execution will always by asynchronous.

Return values
true Application started successfully.

false Application failed to start.

Context
ttdllbw library function.

Andreas,

start.application.local() is a LN Tools function and albertsmid is on Baan-4 version.

Hi,
as Webtop is the advised UI by Baan/SSA/Infor it is consequent to backport it to the older versions (Vc in my case).

regards,
Andreas