Traditionally, DCTs had small displays, custom operating systems and limited programming sets. These DCT's require specialized programming tools as well as unique programming skills. In today's environment, IBM's Terminal Services for DOS and for Windows product (also known as "IBM DOS and Windows Terminal Services" or "DWTS") can be used successfully for data collection when installed on off-the-shelf standard or industrial personal computers creating a much more versatile data collection system.
In addition, many of today's popular palm-sized handheld devices are based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system which provides a graphical point-and-click user interface.
PCs and devices running DOS or one of the Windows operating systems can utilize the power of the C programming language and easy to use Visual Basic compilers which are popular with today's programmers. When you combine DWTS APIs and one of the popular programming languages, you are no longer limited by the unique programming environments of the traditional data collection terminals.
DWTS allows a computer that has DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000/XP or Windows CE installed on it to communicate with the DCConnect server connected to a standard LAN network (wired or RF) using a standard TCP/IP stream socket. There are no requirements for specialized RS485 or RS232 wired networks which are needed by some older data collection terminals.
DWTS provides a set of application programming interfaces (API's) that allow user-written applications on a computer that has DOS or Windows installed on it to
This set of API's enables a personal computer that has DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000 or Windows CE installed on it to send transactions to the DCConnect server. The DCConnect server handles these transactions just like other transactions received from IBM 752x terminals or terminals running the IBM DCConnect Client; they are stored in DCConnect Mailboxes for retrieval and processing by Transaction Connection scripts or applications that use the mailbox DCConnect APIs.
DWTS provides an API that allows messages to be sent between user-written applications running on a DOS or Windows device and user-written applications running on the DCConnect server.
DWTS supports sending transactions, setting and retrieving terminal user variables, and validating data just like any other terminal. Thus, with well-written applications, DOS or Windows terminals can participate seemlessly along side traditional data collection terminals without changing any server based code.
If the DOS or Windows program needs to obtain information from a DCConnect application, it can use the DwsRequestData or DwsGetUserVariable API. DCConnect provides APIs which allow DCConnect applications to read and reply to data requests as well as set terminal user variables.
Starting with version 2.1.0 of the DCConnect Server and DWTS, support was added for dynamic configuration of DWTS terminals. This means a DWTS terminal can communicate with the DCConnect Server without having been previously configured - as long as it uses a terminal name that is not already in use.
Also new with version 2.1.0 of the DCConnect Server and DWTS is the ability to have multiple threads waiting on calls to DwsGetUserVariable.
All files marked with *** below can be obtained through the contacts mentioned at the link above.
Version 2.10 of the DWTS API Toolkit is DWTS210.EXE***. The download file is a self-extracting executable zip file. It is not necessary to provide the -d parameter when running the executable to extract itself; creation of the subdirectories contained within the zip file is automatic.
Read about fixes/enhancements made in this version of the DWTS API. Installation instructions for the fix pack are also included.
For complete documentation about how to use the latest features of the DWTS API see the Terminal Services for DOS/Windows User's Guide.