Re: How to display a Word document in form?

Nick wrote:

> I'm using Forms 6i on WinXP Pro.
> In a form, how can we open a pop-up window and display (just display the
> content) of a Word (or RTF) document?

<snipped>
> But I have problem with the last step
> - What method packages and event packages should I select if I want to
> display (and may be zoom) the content (no other Word functionalities)

No packages should be necessary as the display and zoom code sits within that object (i.e with the DLL/OCX that implements that object type). What the language and compiler must support though is late binding.

Basically you create the object. Then you invoke methods of this object. As this object is a OLE Variant (i.e unknown from the compiler's viewpoint), it will resolve the calls you make to that object at runtime.

Another option is to import the type library for the object. Some dev environments allows you to do this and create a complete access lib for you, with classes and definitions and external declarations to access the object (in which case you can typecast variant objects to their actual types).

> - I have tried selecting just a few packages and I already got too many
> compilation errors and the first error is always: 'program too large'

Guess why I have refused to even touch Forms for doing client-server development for Oracle..

> And 1 more question
> - If the above issues solved, can I put the OLE container in a canvas and
> automatically activate OLE content once the window containing the canvas
> is activated?

Yep, if the language allows you that. If Forms is any kind of OO language (is it even?), you will have a constructor for the Window. When the Window is created, you can also create the Ole Object, and call whatever methods you need to load a document and display it.

Forms btw is a very bad choice when wanting to integrate your Oracle client with the Microsoft desktop environment and the services it has to offer. Hell, it is a bad choice. Period. The only thing it has/had to offer to make it a candidate, was for x-platform development. With a corporate desktop market running 99% Microsoft Windows, that is not an issue. With Borland offering full source code compatibility between Windows and Linux (also now talk of HPUX and Solaris), Forms crossplatform ability is laughable.

Demented and warped opinions my own as always.

--
Billy