6.2. Program Launch Options

Program to Launch is the name of the executable program that receives information from Cascade Connect. This field can be left blank. If so, Cascade Connect will start and then enter a cycle where it looks for the DDE Client every 3 seconds until it is found. There is no default entry for this field. The configuration file syntax is:

Program Argument specifies an optional argument string for the Program to Launch. Excel users may wish to name a spreadsheet here. InTouch users will want to specify the name of the application that should be loaded into InTouch on startup. This field should be left blank if the Program to Launch field is blank. There is no default entry for this field. The configuration file syntax is:

Auto Exit causes Cascade Connect to exit automatically when the Windows client program is terminated. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

Debug Mode enables or disables debugging information displayed in the Cascade Connect window. If Debug Mode is enabled, then substantial information is maintained and displayed. This has a noticeable impact on performance in most installations. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

Read Only Mode disables all write requests from the Windows client to the data server. Cascade Connect will still accept DDE ADVISE and DDE POKE requests from Windows clients, but will not transmit any information to the Connect Server. This can be useful when designing read-only applications. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

Allow Advise causes Cascade Connect to accept DDE ADVISE requests from the Windows client. Some Windows programs, such as InTouch, can perform all of their activity through DDE POKE messages, and do not require DDE ADVISE services. If DDE ADVISE services are disabled in Cascade Connect, then Cascade Connect does not need to maintain a private point list, and will use substantially less memory and CPU while running. Advise loops make use of the Service|Topic!variable syntax within the Windows client application. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

Never Poke prevents Cascade Connect from using DDE POKE as a method of data transmission. Some Windows programs, such as FIX DMACS, do not accept DDE POKE messages, and so will simply waste CPU time rejecting the message.The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

Poke Only Non-Advise eliminates unwanted DDE ADVISE messages. Normally Cascade Connect will transmit data changes using DDE POKE to the primary Windows client (the program named in the Program to Launch field). If the data point also has a DDE ADVISE loop attached, then Cascade Connect will transmit both the POKE and the ADVISE. This can be confusing to some applications (e.g., InTouch), causing an echo effect where value changes will be constantly retransmitted between Windows and the data server. The Poke Only Non-Advise option will eliminate this effect. Some applications, such as Excel, can accept both POKE and ADVISE simultaneously as independent messages, and may or may not need this option based on the Excel configuration. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is:

DB Bandwidth Reduce causes Cascade Connect to de-register data points that are sent by exception from the Cascade DataHub but are not accepted by the Windows client (as long as no DDE ADVISE loop is attached to them). This option significantly improves performance when you have a large number of active values in the Cascade DataHub that are not used in the Windows client application. The default is off (0). The configuration file syntax is: