Normally when a user logs into UpFront they will be presented with successive prompts for Login and Password. With UpFront release 1.90c3 and above, you have the ability to create your own customised dialogs such as:-

The dialog is created either by using the provided example code and the provided Alex compiler, or alternatively any language (Visual Basic, Delphi) capable of DDE communication. If you choose to use the Alex compiler you should find the language syntax similar to Visual Basic and quite easy to use. The language has very extensive capabilities, indeed a substantial part of UpFront is written in Alex however the language is provided undocumented and is not a supported part of the UpFront product.

To use the new login dialog you must use an UpFront login script based on the newly provided example dde.lin. The way this script operates is as follows:-

1. When it see's the first login prompt it will "WinExec" the new login dialog. Note that if you use the Alex example the "WinExec" will run "upfront.exe -file login.out", this is because UpFront.exe runs as an interpreter for any compiled Alex program.
2. When the user clicks "Okay" in the login dialog it will use DDEExecute to send a "SendString < login text>" command to UpFront, the "SendString" will cause UpFront to pass the login string to thr host.
3. When the UpFront login script see's the "Password:" prompt, it will send a DDEExecute to the login program to notify it that it should now send the password text. This will once again be done by the login program using DDEExecute to send a "SendString <password text>" command to UpFront.
4. Finally when a succesful login occurs, the upfront script will send a DDEExecute to the login program telling it to exit.

If you study both "dde.lin" and "logn.at" you will see that DDE is used to communicate a lot of other events, such as invalid logins and the user clicking "Cancel" in the dialog. To each of these events the login dialog code has to respond appropriately.