Desktop Lookup Application : Applications Definitions Page:

(Sound Required)

To access the definition window, simply double click on any gray part of the main Postcode window.  This will activate a small [Defs] button at bottom right-hand corner of window:

Or use menu "Options >> Access settings"

The system will then ask for your password you assigned when you opened your account.  If the system is using Local data, then the password is "LocalMode"

Note : If you are a developer then look at the example Excel or MS Access which is installed with the system.   This includes code on how to integrate easily into your own application using a COM object,  Click here for more information

Clicking on the [Defs] button will allow you to Edit the Program Interface definitions:

The left-hand side allows you to select up to 20 user user defined Application Definitions, the right-hand side shows the definitions.

Note : The above example shows Sage, ACT, etc in the user defined list.  These are only shown in the list when you have defined them or copied them from the preset definitions (see next section).   When first installed, the system downloads preset application definitions, from our server.   To see a list of these, close the "Application Definitions" window, and select "help >> About".  All current applications are listed here.

Copying Existing Application Definitions settings:

Pressing  [Copy Existing Application Definition] button allows you to take an existing definition and copy the settings to your user defined definitions.   Having pressed this button gives a list to copy from:

Simply select a definition and press [Copy] button.

Therefore the copied definition is named:

In the above screen shot we copied the definition for "Sage Delivery Address".

Simply Postcode Lookup Application Detection:

When activated, the software reads the current title application, child window title and any text in child window, it then searches through all the application definitions matching off criteria to find the appropriate instructions for writing address information back to the application.   The criteria for your application can be set under the "Application Detection" tab.    This allows you to say if the Application title starts with x or contain x, or "Applications running must contain" z, then use this definition.   The application data detected when activated is shown in the lower part of the "Application Criteria" tab:

Having found a match it will show the name of the definition in the title bar of the search window.  

For example:

Sage uses what is called a Dialogue box. This window has " Delivery Address" as a title, so:

So the criteria would be:

To narrow down the criteria we can then add "B:Applications running must contain" which matches the title of the Main application "SAGE LINE 50":

Note: The criteria is not case sensitive. 

So our criteria is:

Note : If the current application does not match any criteria, then the search window will show "Anything" in the title bar.  In which case you need to alter your criteria until the Postcode lookup application gives the correct name in the title bar.

Play back Speed:

The lookup software for majority of applications plays back the data to the application as key strokes.   Obviously you want this to happen as fast as possible, but some applications are slower than others, therefore you are given a selection box to select the speed of play back.   Medium is probably the recommended setting for any normal application.  Errors may occur if set to fast if the software is slower at responding.

Use the "Debug" speed setting to watch in slow motion what is happing when having problems.

Making Address UPPER CASE:

Problem when pasting back data?:

This option should not be turned on, if your application uses a large text pad (such as Microsoft Word etc), since it will move the cursor before pasting the address data back to your application.

Stopping the "Paste Company Name" message

This message has been known to effect certain applications cursor flow.  If it is a problem then it can be suppressed using the above option.  This only suppresses the message, so the clipboard will still have the Company Name placed on it.

V1.0019+ only

Setting keys to write data:

On the "Button 1 Play Back" tab, we can set the data and keystrokes to write back information to you favorite application:

The button description is the description which appears on the button at the bottom of the search window:

Now lets focus on the how it pastes the data back into the applications address fields.

For example in Sage delivery address we have:

If the user moves to the first line of the address and activates the lookup, we want Street1, Street2, Town, County, Post Code.  So we set up the window as follows:

In the above example we are playing "{home}[shift}{end}" before writing any address information back to Sage.   These key strokes select what ever is in the field currently which is then deleted if data is written to field.   

The number 1,2,4,5,6 defines the order in which the data is written, with "{tab}" played to move to the next field after writing data.  You need not map Line3, since it very really contains data.

"Only play if contains data" should be selected if the data you are pasting the data into a memo (Multi line) type field or a series of fields which have no predefined meaning.

For example:

IRIS Exchequer also has a "Delivery" address window, very similar to Sage, but it has no defined structure:

So the definitions would be:

When "Only play if criteria contains data" is ticked an extra "Pad with" field is visible.  This allows you to define keystrokes to delete the contents of any field not filled in.

So if we looked a Postcode which only filled in four lines of address then the software will delete the contents for the fifth field using key strokes "{home}{shift}{end}{del}".

Note : It is important that you make sure the key strokes are not pasted back, while a button in your application has focus.  As it may cause the program to hang.

Overriding the Address Country name:

If the package you are interfacing with contains a pull down list of country codes, then under the "Other" tab you can override the default country name:

The default word returned by the software for Country can be altered by selecting "Access Settings" menu, then selecting  "Set Defaults (country names)":

Here we can set the default name of the Country or make Simply Postcode lookup write back "England","Scotland","Wales", "Channel Islands" or "Isle of Man".   Note this was added in V2.0.2

Change Address fields to uppercase:

Simply tick one of the check boxes on the screen above (previous section)

Testing Postcode Lookup Software:

Use a Postcode of "ZZ99" to use demo data and not use your credits while testing.

Two button configuration:

Some applications may have more than one set of address fields, which have different formats, or in the case of Excel you may want to paste the data across or down the sheet.  

The provision is provided to allow more than one button the be defined.   In which case two buttons appear on the search window so the use has the choice:

So the bottom of the search window presents to the user:

Keystroke definitions:

For Example:

{home}{shift}{end}  = Presses {home} key then holds down {shift} while pressing {end} to select all text in field

{alt}A =  Holds down {alt} while pressing {A}