User's Manual

6-12
LOW Level ASCII Sequences using a DLL
The DLL disk is included with every RF Terminal system. To install the
program, run the INSTALL.EXE program from Windows Explorer. The
program, PromptCOM comes in both 16 bit and 32 bit versions of a Windows
Dynamic Link Library (DLL) that allows programmers to easily add the ability
to send prompts and receive data from their RF Terminal via the RF Base
Station or direct serial link.
The Application Programming Interface (API) for PromptCOM consists of the
following functions:
InitComDLL Initializes the PromptCOM system
CloseComDLL Shuts down the promptCOM system and frees
resources without closing the parent application.
Setup Setup is used to configure the COM port
SendCommand This function both sends a command to the terminal
with the given ID
GetCommData This function returns the data entered at the remote
unit for that prompt
DataAvailable Use this function to check if there is data to process
before calling GetCommData
There are sample programs distributed on the diskette for Visual Basic, Access
and Delphi. There is also a Visual Basic code example that does not require the
DLL. Use the Help System as documentation and view the README file for
the latest changes.
PromptCOM/ActiveX
Drop-in components are tools that are added to your programming environment
"tool kit". There are a variety of different technologies around for implementing
a drop-in component such as VBX (for Visual Basic) and VCL (for Delphi and
C Builder) and COM (ActiveX). Only the ActiveX variety are widely
compatible with almost all development environments.
PromptCOM/ActiveX is a drop in COM component that allow programmers to
easily add the ability to send prompts to and receive data from their R/F
Terminal via an RF Base Station. It is compatible with Visual Basic, Visual
C++, Delphi, and most other 32-bit development platforms. See the help file for
installation instructions.