<ddeLink> (DDE Connection)

This element represents a connection to an external Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) server. DDE is a method of sending data between applications using Windows messages according to a documented protocol that has been stable since about 1990.

The hierarchy of names defined by a DDE server is Application, Topics, and Items. Topics often correspond to units such as files or documents or database names, and Items refer to subsets of the data such as cell ranges, rows, fields, columns. DDE items can have multiple <values> as well.

example:

Data connectivity can use a number of different technologies.The following is just one example of a spreadsheetML fragment describing the product Microsoft Excel being used as a DDE server to provide data to the current spreadsheet document:

<ddeLink xmlns:r="…" ddeService="excel" ddeTopic="[ddesource.xls]Sheet1">
  <ddeItems>
    <ddeItem name="R1C1" advise="1"/>
    <ddeItem name="StdDocumentName" ole="1" advise="1"/>
  </ddeItems>
</ddeLink>

Parent Elements

<externalLink> (§3.14.8)

Child Elements

Subclause

<ddeItems> (DDE Items Collection)

§3.14.3

Attributes

Description

<ddeService> (Service name)

Service name (i.e., application name) for the DDE connection. This is a required attribute.

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_Xstring simple type (§3.18.96).

<ddeTopic> (Topic for DDE server)

Describes something for the DDE application to which the channel pertains— usually a document of that application. This is a required attribute.

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_Xstring simple type (§3.18.96).

The following XML Schema fragment defines the contents of this element:

<complexType name="CT_DdeLink">
	<sequence>
	<element name="ddeItems" type="CT_DdeItems" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	</sequence>
	<attribute name="ddeService" type="ST_Xstring" use="required"/>
	<attribute name="ddeTopic" type="ST_Xstring" use="required"/>
</complexType>