Question

I used following command on windows xp and its working perfectly fine.

 rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler c:\test.pdf 

but the same command is doing nothing at all on windows 2003 server (precisely, Windows 2003 R2, Enterprise Edition, SP-2). My requirement actually is to open pdf documents saved on local disks from with in oracle form6i for which i intent to use

HOST('cmd /c rundll32.exe url.dll, FileProtocolHandler "c:\test.pdf"');

command, which is not working offcourse. The point is, if a command is not working on the dos shell in the first place, how will that run from oracle forms. So plz help me how to run this command on windows 2003? why the same command opens pdf perfectly fine on xp but not on 2003?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The call cmd /c rundll32.exe url.dll, FileProtocolHandler "c:\test.pdf" looks like you are trying to display a pdf file with the default viewer of the system.

There is a command that does this, and it has been around at least since Windows 95: start. Just run start "c:\test.pdf" and the system will launch the file with the associated program.

From help start:

non-executable files may be invoked through their file association just
by typing the name of the file as a command. (e.g. WORD.DOC would
launch the application associated with the .DOC file extension).
See the ASSOC and FTYPE commands for how to create these
associations from within a command script.