You can call server functions for an OLE control through its Object property using the following syntax:
olecontrolname.Object.{ serverqualifiers.}functionname ( { arguments } )
If the OLE object is complex, there could be nested properties or objects within the object that serve as qualifiers for the function name.
Required parentheses
PowerScript considers all commands to the server either property
settings or functions. For statements and functions to be distinguished
from property settings, they must be followed by parentheses surrounding
the parameters. If there are no parameters, specify empty parentheses.
PowerBuilder converts OLE data to and from compatible PowerBuilder datatypes. The datatypes of values you specify for arguments must be compatible with the datatypes expected by the server, but they do not need to be an exact match.
When the function returns a value, you can assign the value to a PowerBuilder variable of a compatible datatype.
If an OLE server expects an argument to be passed by reference so that it can pass a value back to your script, include the keyword REF just before the argument. This is similar to the use of REF in an external function declaration:
olecontrol.Object.functionname ( REF argname )
In these generic examples, the server can change the values of ls_string and li_return because they are passed by reference:
string ls_string integer li_return ole_1.Object.testfunc(REF ls_string, REF li_return)
This example illustrates the same function call using an OLEObject variable.
OLEObject ole_obj
ole_obj = CREATE OLEObject
ole_obj.ConnectToNewObject("servername")
ole_obj.testfunc(REF ls_string, REF li_return)
Setting the timeout period
Calls from a PowerBuilder client to a server time out after
five minutes. You can use the SetAutomationTimeout PowerScript
function to change the default timeout period if you expect a specific
OLE request to take longer.
Microsoft Word 6.0 and 7.0 support automation with a command set similar to the WordBasic macro language. The command set includes both statements and functions and uses named parameters. Later versions of Microsoft Word use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which consists of a hierarchy of objects that expose a specific set of methods and properties.
WordBasic statements WordBasic has both statements and functions. Some of them have the same name. WordBasic syntax differentiates between statements and functions calls, but PowerBuilder does not.
To specify that you want to call a statement, you can include AsStatement! (a value of the OLEFunctionCallType enumerated datatype) as an argument. Using AsStatement! is the only way to call WordBasic statements that have the same name as a function. Even when the statement name does not conflict with a function name, specifying AsStatement! is more efficient:
olecontrol.Object.application.wordbasic.statementname ( argumentlist, AsStatement! )
For example, the following code calls the AppMinimize statement:
ole_1.Object.application.wordbasic. &
AppMinimize("",1,AsStatement!)
Named parameters PowerBuilder does not support named parameters that both WordBasic and Visual Basic use. In the parentheses, specify the parameter values without the parameter names.
For example, the following statements insert text at a bookmark in a Word 6.0 or 7.0 document:
ole_1.Activate(InPlace!)
Clipboard(mle_nameandaddress.Text)
ole_1.Object.application.wordbasic.&
fileopen("c:\msoffice\winword\doc1.doc")
ole_1.Object.application.wordbasic.&
editgoto("NameandAddress", AsStatement!)
ole_1.Object.application.wordbasic.&
editpaste(1, AsStatement!)
The last two commands in a WordBasic macro would look like this, where Destination is the named parameter:
EditGoto.Destination = "NameandAddress" EditPaste
In a PowerBuilder script, you would use this syntax to insert text in a Word 97 or later document:
ole_1.Object.Selection.TypeText("insert this text")
In the corresponding Visual Basic statement, the named parameter Text contains the string to be inserted:
Selection.TypeText Text:="insert this text"
Automation is not macro programming
You cannot send commands to the server application that declare
variables or control the flow of execution (for example, IF
THEN). Automation executes one command at a time independently
of any other commands. Use PowerScript’s conditional and
looping statements to control program flow.
Example of Word automation To illustrate how to combine PowerScript with server commands, the following script counts the number of bookmarks in a Microsoft Word OLE object and displays their names:
integer i, count
string bookmarklist, curr_bookmark
ole_1.Activate(InPlace!)
count = ole_1.Object.Bookmarks.Count
bookmarklist = "Bookmarks = " + String(count) + "~n"
FOR i = 1 to count
curr_bookmark = ole_1.Object.Bookmarks[i].Name
bookmarklist = bookmarklist + curr_bookmark + "~n"
END FOR
MessageBox("BookMarks", bookmarklist)
Word automation tip
You can check that you are using the correct syntax for Word
automation with the Word macro editor. Turn on macro recording in
Word, perform the steps you want to automate manually, then turn
off macro recording. You can then type Alt+F11 to open
the macro editor and see the syntax that was built. Remember that
PowerBuilder uses square brackets for array indexes.
Example of Word 6.0 and 7.0 automation The following script counts the number of bookmarks in a Microsoft Word 6.0 or 7.0 OLE object and displays their names:
integer i, count
string bookmarklist, curr_bookmark
ole_1.Activate(InPlace!)
// Get the number of bookmarks
count = ole_1.Object. &
application.wordbasic.countbookmarks
bookmarklist = "Bookmarks = " + String(count) + "~n"
// Get the name of each bookmark
FOR i = 1 to count
curr_bookmark = ole_1.Object. &
application.wordbasic.bookmarkname(i)
bookmarklist = bookmarklist + curr_bookmark + "~n"
END FOR
MessageBox("BookMarks", bookmarklist)
