Several of our clients have requested us to have an API so that their custom application can open a client account window in our application.

Without rewriting our entire application into an automation server is there a way that an external app can tell our app to open a Customer Account screen? (Assume the external application is not written in VFP)

Possible solutions I could think of:-

1. rewrite our application as a COM automation server -- probably a massive job!

2. use BindEvents() to have our application respond to a Windows API event and let the other application trigger the API event passing the customerID as parameter.
Is that realistic and which Windows API event to use?

3. Have the other application create a text file in a specified directory; our app then monitors that directory and responds when a new file is created. The file simply contains the customerID parameter.
Possible problem: too much time is spent constantly monitoring the folder for the creation of a file; performance will take a hit.

These are the 3 possibilities I could come up with. What is the best way to go about this? Any feedback or suggestions on how to implement this are welcome.

cheers,

Alain