OLE support in PowerBuilder
OLE, originally an acronym for Object Linking and Embedding,
is a facility that allows Windows programs to share data and program
functionality. PowerBuilder OLE controls are containers that
can call upon OLE server applications to
display and manipulate OLE objects.
OLE control
The OLE control in the Window painter allows you to link or
embed components from several applications in a window. For most
servers, you can also control the server application using functions
and properties defined by that server.
In PowerBuilder, the OLE control is a container for an OLE object.
The user can activate the control and edit the object using functionality
supplied by the server application. You can also automate OLE interactions
by programmatically activating the object and sending commands to
the server. OLE servers may be either DLLs or separate EXE files.
They may be running on a different computer.
You can use PowerScript automation on an OLE control that
is visible in a window, or invisibly on an object whose reference
is stored in an OLEObject variable. The OLEObject data type lets
you create an OLE object without having an OLE container visible
in a window.
OLECustomControl
A second control, OLECustomControl, is a container for an
ActiveX control (also called an OLE custom control or OCX control).
ActiveX controls are DLLs (sometimes with the extension OCX) that
always run in the same process as the application that contains
them.
Managing OLE objects
You can manage OLE objects by storing them in variables and
saving them in files. There are two object types for this purpose:
OLEStorage and OLEStream. Most applications won’t require
these objects, but if you need to do something complicated (such
as combining several OLE objects into a single data structure) you
can use these objects and their associated functions.
Other areas of OLE support
For information about OLE objects in a DataWindow
object, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide
.
For information about PowerBuilder as an OLE
server, see Chapter 18, “PowerBuilder Runtime Automation
Server”.