From: Gary_Lewington@mindlink.bc.ca (Gary Lewington)
Subject: Re: Connection to Pathworks file service using windows
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 05:21:35 GMT

> Tobias Abthoff writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <toa.728039168@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de>
> Posted: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 09:06:0
>
> Org.  : Technical University of Munich, Germany
>
> >Sorry for including the whole article just to pick up on this point, but
> >you shouldn't have any problems running USE in a DOS window (at least I
> >don't!) The lack of a simple WINUSE app is a bit of a pain, but that's
> >a seperate issue entirely. Your current DOS batch jobs, USE commands and
> >all, should work.
>
> >(I've no idea if DEC say they should or shouldn't work, but from a purely
> >empirical point of view, USE 4.1.23 works in a Windows 3.1 DOS window.
> >Maybe I'm just lucky, but I get to sit at a lot of different desks, and I
> >don't think I've ever had problems using USE from a DOS prompt. I prefer
> >to use USE because if I'm working on someone elses machine, and I use
> >File Manager to connect to another drive, then the automatic reconnect
> feature
> >will cause unecessary prompts if I forget to disconnect).
>
> You are just lucky. The Problem is not the USE Command. This works
> very well in a DOS-Box. The Problem is Windows which is not
> aware of new connection you have made.
> This might get you in *sometimes* in some trouble. You will get
> a message like "Your applikation was communicating on the network
> when it was terminated - please restart windows"
>
> tobias
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> abthoff@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de
>


I thought I'd throw my nickels worth in since we have been using dynamic
connections for quite a while now.
With Pathworks and Windows we also had the same problem. Namely how do we
dynamically connect to a service, run an application, then disconnect. We
needed this functionality
because our applications were services and we had more users than
licenses. Batch files under DOS worked nicely with the USE command. For DOS
applications under Windows this was a bit of a problem until
we installed the latest CSC patch. This method does not work for running
Windows apps.

For the past year we have been using Batchrunner, which is a batch
language for Windows. It will run applications, do most things a batch
language should, and best of all it will connect and disconnect network
services under Pathworks.

Our batchrunner files are typically 4 lines long. Our applications are
on particular file services with a permanent drive designation. Ie: Word for
Windows is always connected to on the G: drive and Excel is
always on the X: drive. The users' icon runs a batchrunner file which
connects to the service with the appropriate drive, runs the application,
waits for it to finish, and then disconnects from the service. It's dead
simple and works a treat.

The software is called Batchrunner (shareware from Wilsonware or
available under the Norton Desktop for Windows by Symantec). You need to ask
Symantec for the "extra" Batchrunner manual as the network connect and
disconnect calls are not documented.  The extra
manual is free. Wilsonware charges about $50-$60 I think and the
software is available via FTP from somewhere that escapes me at
the moment.

Hope this helps.....:)
 /gary

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