OLE Class Generator
Use the OLE Class Generator window to create classes that wrapper the capabilities of OLE Controls and other OLE automation objects.
Fields
Push buttons
Select Generate to generate the new class (if necessary) and the appropriate selectors.
Select Close to close the OLE Class Generator window.
OLE object information
In the OLE object information field, specify the information related to the OLE object you want to create a wrapper class for.
Controls
Select this radio button if you want to query the system registry for the names of all registered OLE controls. The names appear in the drop-down list.
Other
Select this radio button if you want to query the system registry for the names of registered OLE objects other than OLE controls. The names appear in the drop-down list.
Details
Select this push button to open the help for the selected control, if help file information was found in the system registry.
After you select an object, the name of the selected object appears in the field to the right.
Code generation options
In the Code generation options field, specify options related to the wrapper class that will be generated.
• Select View if the generated class is used to wrapper an OLE control that will be used as a VA Smalltalk view. New classes will be created as subclasses of AbtOleControlView.
• Select Widget if the generated class is used to wrapper an OLE control that will be used as a Smalltalk widget. This option is for use by Smalltalk programmers who do not use the VA Smalltalk visual programming tools to construct user interfaces. New classes will be created as subclasses of AbtOleExtendedWidget.
• Select Object wrapper if the generated class is used to wrapper a nonvisual OLE control or OLE automation object. New classes will be created as subclasses of AbtOleObjectWrapper.
• In the combo box, select the name of the class where the generated selectors will be stored. If the class you want to use does not exist, type the name directly into the field, and the OLE Class Generator will create the class, subclassed as determined by your selections, when you select Generate.
In addition, you can select several additional options:
• Select Generate VA interface if you want the OLE Class Generator to build a VA Smalltalk public interface for the generated class. For parts that are to be used in the VA Smalltalk composition editor, this option should be checked. This option is checked by default.
• Select Smalltalk feature names if you want the OLE Class Generator to use Smalltalk naming conventions when saving VA Smalltalk feature information. (In many cases, the naming conventions for OLE object properties are not consistent with Smalltalk naming conventions.)
• Select Use method return type to request that any value returned by an OLE method invocation be answered by the generated VA method. Some OLE automation servers such as Microsoft Word have methods that fail if the returnType is requested. For these cases, unchecking Use method return type prior to code generation will cause generated code not to request the return value when invoking the OLE method.
• Select Include optional arguments if you want the generated code to be saved without optional arguments. (Some OLE objects contain methods that have optional parameters.) If optional arguments are generated, the programmer must ensure that valid (non-nil) values are passed in these arguments at run time.
Code generation items
In the Code generation items field, you can set options related to the individual items that will be generated. The list shows the OLE properties, methods, or events, along with the Smalltalk class names that will be generated. The third column indicates whether the object will be included in the generated class.
• Select Properties to see a list of all of the OLE properties for the selected OLE object. The OLE Class Generator will map each OLE properties to a VA Smalltalk attributes with a getter and setter method will be created for each.
• Select Methods to see a list of all of the OLE events for the selected OLE object. The OLE Class generator will map OLE events into VA Smalltalk events. Event handler methods are generated which are used to signal VA Smalltalk events when a given OLE event is detected.
Note
VA Smalltalk has default event handlers for the events KeyDown, KeyUp, MouseDown, MouseMove, and MouseUp. These events are excluded from code generation by default. You can choose to in include these events if you want to override the default event handlers.
• Select Details to open the help for the selected property, method, or event, if help file information was found in the interface information for the object.
• Select Separate class to open a separate view to allow code generation of the selected property. This button is enabled only if the selected property or method returns an OleAutomationObject as its type.
OLE object wrapper generation
Use the OLE Object Wrapper Generation window to specify the options for generating a separate object wrapper class for an OLE property of type
OleAutomationObject, or a method that returns an
OleAutomationObject. Specify the information in the
Code generation options and
code generation items fields just as you would for any OLE wrapper class.
Last modified date: 03/29/2020