class OleAutoClient

Topic group Example

Creates an OLE2 controller that attaches to an OLE2 server.

Syntax

[<oRef> =] new OleAutoClient(<server expC>)

<oRef>

A variable or property in which you want to store a reference to the newly created OleAutoClient object.

<server expC>

The name of the OLE Automation server. The name is of the form, "app.object"; for example, "word.application"

Properties

The properties, events, and methods of each instance of the OleAutoClient class depend on the attached OLE automation server.

Description

OLE automation allows you to control another application, an OLE automation server, through an OLE automation client. For example, with a full-featured word processor as an OLE automation server, you could do the following all on the server machine:

Start the word processor

Open an order form

Fill in data that was entered in a client browser

Fax that order form to a customer

Close the word processor

With dBASE Plus as the host for the OLE automation client, you could control the entire process from a browser. You don’t even need the word processor to be installed on the dBASE Plus client, just on the dBASE Plus server machine.

dBASE Plus’s dynamic object model is a natural host for OLE automation clients. Because there is no need to declare the capabilities of the OLE automation server as you would with a statically linked language, you can specify any OLE Automation server at run time, and use whatever capabilities it has.

Once you create the OleAutoClient object, the properties, events, and methods the OLE automation server provides are accessed through the OleAutoClient object, just as with stock dBASE Plus objects. You can also inspect( ) the OleAutoClient object’s properties.