DDE to wonderware panel

[MrPike]

Archie.  I may be way off base here but is it possible to read DDE information say from a DDE enabled device such as a Wonderware panel?.  I have a site that has a WW panel and wants to provide additional remote OIT displays without the cost of the WW.  I know DDE is out of date but I believe WW still uses it in some form... FastDDE, I think they call it.  I was just curious since DDE is a Microsoft exchange and VB is a Microsoft software that there maybe a native way to communicate thru this exchange???  Thanks   

[Archie]

I have never tried to do this myself, so I couldn't give an answer from experience. The only resource that I know of is a library for DDE to .NET, which is found here:

http://ndde.codeplex.com/

There is also a blog about using with VB.NET:

http://blogs.artinsoft.net/Mrojas/archive/2009/06/10/DDE-in-NET.aspx

[Joe Matkowski]

I did this one time, but the opposite direction the customer wanted to push their QC data that was excel based to there Historian.  We created a DDE topic in WW DAServer(had to get the driver from WW think I still have it) and connected it to a shared folder with the spreadsheet in it on a server then for some reason due to the historian (trying to remember version) copy the values into tags in the controllogix and then out to the Historian. It was convalluted but the last time I was there they still use it.  I will look and see if I can find any of the stuff later tonight I built that about four years ago.

jody