Re: OLE Automation Forms 4.5 -

> What I would like to do is this:
>
> Link a Word document to a form which, when queried, activates
> the document and puts some data from text items to fields in it.
> Then the user can fill in a few more fields in Word and print
> the document.
>
> I'm totally newbie to OLE. I've tried to read all about it in Forms
> and Word documentation and it seems like that could be possible. The
> problem is that Forms examples "poke" data only to Excel and
> the material on Word that I have doesn't give the slightest hint
> about how to use OLE automation. So if anyone can give a simple
> example solution (or tell with enough authority that it can't be done)
> I'll be most extravagantly grateful.

Hi Pauli.

You surely can control Word 6 from Forms 4.5 via OLE Automation. The Automation interface exported by Word 6 is an interface to WordBasic. Ie, what you can write in your WordBasic code you can write in your Automation controller. Refer to your WordBasic on-line help or manual.

A simple example saving a text field to a temporary file, opening this file with Word, starting the spell checker, saving the file and reading it back into the form is the following:

declare
  file text_io.file_type;
  fileName varchar2(255) := 'c:\tmp\spell.tmp'; /* Should use Windows API functions for temporary files... */   line varchar2(2000);

  argList ole2.list_type;
  word ole2.obj_type;

begin
  file := text_io.fopen(fileName, 'w');
  text_io.put(file, :text);
  text_io.fclose(file);

  word := ole2.create_obj('Word.Basic');

  Word_Basic.FileOpen(word, fileName);
  Word_Basic.ToolsSpelling(word);
  Word_Basic.FileSave(word);
  Word_Basic.AppClose(word);

  :text := '';
  file := text_io.fopen(fileName, 'r');
  loop
    text_io.get_line(file, line);
    :text := :text || line || chr(13) || chr(10);   end loop;

exception
  when no_data_found then
    text_io.fclose(file);
/* And remove temporary file... */
end;

This code uses the following package:

package body Word_Basic is
  procedure FileOpen(this ole2.obj_type, fileName varchar2) is

    argList ole2.list_type;

  begin
    argList := ole2.create_arglist;

    ole2.add_arg(argList, fileName);
    ole2.invoke(this, 'FileOpen', argList);
    ole2.destroy_arglist(argList);

  procedure ToolsSpelling(this ole2.obj_type) is   

  begin
    ole2.invoke(this, 'ToolsSpelling');
  end;

  procedure FileSave(this ole2.obj_type) is

  begin
    ole2.invoke(this, 'FileSave');
  end;

  procedure AppClose(this ole2.obj_type) is

  begin
    ole2.invoke(this, 'AppClose');
  end;
end;

Hope this helps,

cheers,

Finn

 Finn Ellebaek Nielsen                  Phone:           +45 44 80 80 80
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