Schedualer Automation... beyond Outlook

[Scott24x7]

All,
Okay, now that I've gotten the extremely clever advice for working with Outlook, I have a new question down the same topic (so decided to start a new thread).
I may be asking this question the wrong way, but will try to make myself clear enough...
I would like to make "Launching & Passing" information from my VFP application "Application Independent". That is to say, if I want to put a calendar entry into Outlook, I simply do what Mike & Mike suggested in my other thread. But what if I want to put it into Lotus Notes, or some 3rd party calendaring or even "worse" something browser based like Google Calendar? Is there a way to define "Default Calendar". I assume this same type of thing will translate to "Mail Client" launcher. So would like to be able to do for Lotus Notes or Outlook. In that scenario, if they are the only two I can accommodate support, but having to "Hard Code" for them, I can live with it, as it will cover about 90% of my client base.
I know this is a bit vague, but can anyone provide some theoretical guidance, and maybe an example or two???



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[baltman]

I think you're out of luck here. MS OFfice and a few other apps support automation, but most others do not. While it is possible to automate a website, their design usually doesn't remain static enough to make it worth while.

Brian

 

[Mike Lewis]

Scott,

Actually, I think you've explained the problem very well.

Just as you can launch the user's default email client by executing a mailto: link, you want to be able to launch their preferred appointment handler is some equally generic way.

Unfortunately, this doesn't exist -- at least, as far as I know. I vaguely recall once hearing of a Microsoft proposal called CAPI ("calendaring API") that might have filled that need, but I can't find any recent reference to it.

So, it looks like you're going to be stuck with hard coding.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk