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  2. RPG400-L
  3. February 2007

RE: Launch a URL from RPGLE

Hi Tim,


CHGVAR &CMD +
 VALUE('rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler ' *bcat +
'http://www.site.com')
STRPCCMD   PCCMD(&cmd) PAUSE(*no)
I recently stumbled over this exact same technique (in fact, I was planning to mention it in a newsletter that I'm writing for Thursday). I like this method better than using the "start" command, because "start" is an MS-DOS command, and it causes the ugly MS-DOS window to open! The "start" command also chokes on any embedded ampersands (the & character) in the URL, and that's often a problem. So I really like the rundll method because it solves all of these, yet still will invoke the user's default browser.
I did want to point out that you can save a few precious characters in your URL string by leaving off the "exe" and "dll". For example: 

code for LAUNCH *CMD:

CMD        PROMPT('Launch Browser')

PARM       KWD(URL) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(90) MIN(1) +
           EXPR(*YES) PROMPT('URL to launch')

code for LAUNCH CL program:

PGM  PARM(&URL)

     DCL VAR(&CMD) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(123)
     DCL VAR(&URL) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(90)

     STRPCO PCTA(*NO)
     MONMSG IWS4010

     CHGVAR VAR(&CMD) +
     VALUE('rundll32 url,FileProtocolHandler ' *BCAT &URL)

     STRPCCMD PCCMD(&CMD) PAUSE(*NO)

ENDPGM
Whenever I want to launch a browser window with this technique, I simply do the following: 

    LAUNCH URL('http://www.scottklement.com')
Of course, this technique will only work if the attached terminal supports STRPCCMD, and is running a 32-bit version of Windows. And it's still limited to 90 characters for a URL. But, that's often adequate.

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