Control code or something like that?

[cirkus04]

I have a bit un-legal question...

We have third-party application, which use VPE (we not sure, is this exactly VPE or DCD, comment in *.FLD files say, "FieldStudio"), with source code "lost in space". We need to make very small change in one TPL file (nor field length or position, just change three text fields, nine letters to other nine letters). Is it possible to do this somehow?

Yes, we try "binary hack" , in this case application immediately say "Template file <XX> not found". Looks like TPL file have control sum somewhere, is any way to re-calculate this without source code?

[IDEAL Software Support]

We do not provide support in hacking anything. Please contact the manufacturer of the 3rd party software to make the desired changes. You can also acquire a license of VPE Enterprise Edition (comes with dycodoc), and try to make the changes yourself. But you should respect copyright laws regarding the templates. And you will need the DCD files to edit the templates in dycodoc. DCD files are the layout files. TPL files are generated out of DCD files by dycodoc. The TPL files are for use with VPE.

In short:
dycodoc: layout and data structures can be edited, and are stored in DCD files
VPE: loads the layout and data structures stored in TPL files (created by dycodoc), and processes them to create final documents

[cirkus04]

I found that we have following licenses for IdealSoftware products:

VPE v3.60 Enterprise Edition Runtime Server License One Server, Unlimited Users 32-Bit (Win 9x, ME, NT 3.51 - 4.0, 2000, XP)

PDF Export Module v3.60 Enterprise Edition Runtime Server License XXL Bundle One Server, Unlimited Users 32-Bit (Win 9x, ME, NT 3.51 - 4.0,2000, XP)

And looks like DycoDoc isn't option for us, DycoDoc create TPL files with version '4', which are not compatible with our third-party software, we need a TPL file with version '3'.

[IDEAL Software Support]

This are server-licenses, which were required for v3.x to operate VPE on servers. It is not a development license. Since v4.0 server licenses are no longer required.

VPE v3.60 is from the year 2004. dycodoc can not create file formats for old versions.

Please keep in mind that you can not edit TPL files using dycodoc, only DCD files. TPL files are generated by dycodoc from DCD files.

Best you contact the manufacturer of the 3rd party application that uses VPE. So they acquire an update.

[cirkus04]

Okay, direct question. If we buy VPE development license, can we obtain FieldStudio (not dycodoc) somethere?

[IDEAL Software Support]

FieldStudio is not available since several years. It has been integrated into dycodoc, and dycodoc itself is now capable of editing tables and fields. When you open an old DCD document, the old FLD files are also imported. When writing such on old document to the new DCD file format, no FLD file is created. Instead, the field definitions are stored within the DCD document. You can also run dycodoc in a special batch-mode, so all old DCD files of a directory are converted to the new format.

[cirkus04]

Okay, i will ask differently, can dycodoc create TPL files, in which first 4 chars are 'TPL3'?

[IDEAL Software Support]

The short answer is: no. Neither dycodoc nor VPE write files with old version information. Both can always read all previous versions of document files - with one exception: TPL files of older versions can not be read, because they are always created on-the-fly by dycodoc, when updating DCD files. This guarantees that for older files, which are edited by newer versions of dycodoc, the TPL files are always in sync regarding their version information.