API File Naming Conventions

Each VDA vendor shall provide a different name implementation of the API as a number of these implementations could simultaneously reside on the same PC. No vendor shall name its implementation "RP121032." Each vendor will have a name of at least four characters for the filename prefixes listed below. Although long file names are supported by all of the operating systems mentioned herein, an API DLL shall still be named in accordance with the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system naming convention (up to eight characters for the file name and three characters for the extension).

Implementations will follow the following format (using VENDRX for a vendor name):

Each VDA vendor's implementation will have, and install, both of the aforementioned file types (INI/DLL). The directory to install the INI file to is found using the Windows API call GetSystemWindowsDirectory (), and  the directory where the DLL gets installed would be that directory found using GetSystemDirectory (  ).

The 64-bit DLL does not have to follow the eight-character file name/three-character extension FAT convention, nor does the DLL have to be in the GetSystemDirectory ()  directory. It can be either a full path/filename or just in the PC's LoadLibrary ()  path. If a full path/filename is used, the application will use the complete path in the LoadLibrary ()  statement. If it is just a filename, the application will use just the LoadLibrary ()  statement and allow Windows to find the DLL in the LoadLibrary ()  search path.