Using Visual C++ to Automate Office

 

INFO: Using Visual C++ to Automate Office

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Article ID : 238972

Last Review : March 23, 2006

Revision : 7.0

This article was previously published under Q238972

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SUMMARY

 

MORE INFORMATION

 

Automation and COM

 

Three Ways to Use Automation from Visual C++

 

How to use the Office Type Libraries

 

Automating an Embedded Office Component

 

REFERENCES

SUMMARY

You can use Automation to control Microsoft Office components from your Visual C++ applications. This article provides the basic information you need to automate Office, as well as pointers to resources and sample code.

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MORE INFORMATION

Automation (formerly OLE Automation) is a technology that allows you to take advantage of an existing program's functionality and incorporate it into your own applications. For instance, you can utilize the Microsoft Word spelling and grammar checking capabilities into your application without making Microsoft Word visible to your users. You can even use all of the Microsoft Excel charting, printing, and data analysis tools. This technology can greatly simplify and speed up your development.

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Automation and COM

Automation is based on the Component Object Model (COM). COM is a standard software architecture based on interfaces, and designed to separate code into self-contained objects. Think of it as an extension of the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm, but applicable to separate applications. Each object exposes a set of interfaces, and all communication to an object, such as initialization, notifications, and data transfer, happens through these interfaces.

 

COM is also a set of services provided by dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) installed with the operating system. Automation uses many of those services. One example is the "Marshalling" service, which packages the client application's calls to the member functions of the server application's interfaces, and passes those with their arguments to the server application. The server's interfaces appear to be exposed in the client's memory space, which is not the case when the client is an .exe file running in its own process space. Marshalling also gets the return values from the server's methods back across the process boundaries and safely into the hands of the client's call.

 

There are many other services essential to Automation that are provided by the various COM libraries. Sources of information about those include: • Inside OLE - Second Edition" by Kraig Brockschmidt, ISBN 1-55615-843-2

• Inside COM" by Dale Rogerson - ISBN 1-57231-349-8

• Automation Programmer's Reference," ISBN 1-57231-584-9

 

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Three Ways to Use Automation from Visual C++

There are three basic ways you can use Automation: MFC, #import, and C/C++: • With MFC, use the Visual C++ ClassWizard to generate "wrapper classes" from the Microsoft Office type libraries. These classes, as well as other MFC classes, such as COleVariant, COleSafeArray, and COleException, simplify the tasks of Automation. This method is usually recommended over the others, and most of the Microsoft Knowledge Base examples use MFC.

• #import, a new directive that became available with Visual C++ 5.0, creates VC++ "smart pointers" from a specified type library. It is very powerful, but often not recommended because of reference-counting problems that typically occur when used with the Microsoft Office applications.

• C/C++ Automation is much more difficult, but sometimes necessary to avoid overhead with MFC, or problems with #import. Basically, you work with such APIs as CoCreateInstance(), and COM interfaces such as IDispatch and IUnknown.

It is important to note that there are some slight differences between Automation from C++ compared to plain C, because COM was designed around the C++ class. For additional information about automation with C, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

181473 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181473/) HOWTO: Use OLE Automation from a C Application Rather Than C++

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How to use the Office Type Libraries

A type library is similar to a C/C++ header file. It contains the interfaces, methods, and properties that a server is publishing. You can view the type library with the OLE/COM Object Viewer (Oleview.exe) that comes with Visual C++. Following is a list of the type library file names for Microsoft Office 95, Microsoft Office 97, Microsoft Office 2000, and Microsoft Office XP:

 

Office Application Type library

Word 95 and prior wb70en32.tlb

Excel 95 and prior xl5en32.olb

PowerPoint 95 and prior PowerPoint.tlb

Access 95 and prior msaccess.tlb

Binder 95 binder.tlb

Schedule+ sp7en32.olb

Project pj4en32.olb

Team Manager mstmgr1.olb

Word 97 msword8.olb

Excel 97 excel8.olb

PowerPoint 97 msppt8.olb

Access 97 msacc8.olb

Binder 97 msbdr8.olb

Graph 97 graph8.olb

Outlook 97 msoutl8.olb

Outlook 98 msoutl85.olb

Word 2000 msword9.olb

Excel 2000 excel9.olb

PowerPoint 2000 msppt9.olb

Access 2000 msacc9.olb

Outlook 2000 msoutl9.olb

Word 2002 msword.olb

Excel 2002 excel.olb

PowerPoint 2002 msppt.olb

Access 2002 msacc.olb

Outlook 2002 msoutl.olb

Office Word 2003 msword.olb

Office Excel 2003 excel.exe

Office PowerPoint 2003 msppt.olb

Office Access 2003 msacc.olb

Office Outlook 2003 msoutl.olb

 

 

The type libraries provide you with information about the objects, methods, and properties you need to use. The best way to learn how to navigate the object models of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is to use the Macro Recorder in these Office applications: 1. Choose Record New Macro from the Macro option on the Tools menu and execute the task you're interested in.

2. Choose Stop Recording from the Macro option on the Tools menu.

3. Once you are done recording, choose Macros from the Macro option on the Tools menu, select the macro you recorded, then click Edit.

This takes you to the generated VBA code that accomplishes the task you recorded. Keep in mind that the recorded macro will not be the best possible code in most cases, but it provides a quick and usable example.

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Automating an Embedded Office Component

To automate an embedded Office object or application, you need to get the object's IDispatch pointer. This is given in the Visual C++ Technical Note 39 (TN039). You can find this technical note in the Microsoft Foundation Class Library of the Visual C++ Reference. For a step-by-step example, please click the article number below to view it in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

184663 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184663/) HOWTO: Embed and Automate a Microsoft Excel Worksheet with MFC

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REFERENCES

Chapter 24 of David Kruglinski's "Inside Visual C++" (ISBN:1-57231-565- 2) supplies a general overview as well as some great examples. Also, the Microsoft Knowledge Base is a good source of information.

 

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152023 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152023/) Locating Resources to Study Automation