Support for COM (Component Object Model)

dickey · Post by **dickey** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:11 pm

Does RunRev support the Windows Component Object Model (COM)?

My RunRev demo has expired - and I have an application I intend to port to Revolution that currently uses COM heavily to play with a partner application. Therefore I just wanted to find out before starting down the road to Revolution.

Any assistance appreciated.

Kind regards, Andrew

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:51 pm

No.

Mark

dickey · Post by **dickey** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:16 pm

Thanks Mark,

I had already created command line interfaces for the programs I access currently as COM objects.

My fall back then in Revolution (I presume) is to use the shell support (I remember in Revolution) to control those programs: to pass parameters to and to capture their outputs to Revolution?

Does that sound feasible?

Kind regards, Andrew

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:23 pm

Hi Andrew,

Yes, that should be possible. For example, I create VBS files dynamically, embedding the necessary parameters as variables, use the shell to run the VBS file and make it write the result to stdout. Works great.

Best,

Mark

dickey · Post by **dickey** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:27 pm

Thanks Mark,

Sounds like I now have a plan.

Kind regards,

Andrew

mwieder · Post by **mwieder** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:23 pm

It's also possible to create an external shim library in C that accesses the COM object and provides an interface to rev. I do this to communicate with the QuickBooks COM object from rev.

dickey · Post by **dickey** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 10:26 pm

Thanks mweider,

Yes, that approach is equally valid (I spent sometime overnight looking at that technique - I had forgotten so much of that stuff). The situation you describe with Quickbooks is similar to what I face.

I have also developed a web based version of the software in PHP which does support COM, so I guess I could also attempt integration using revBrowser.

Whether through shell, an external, or via revBrowser I should find a happy solution to my integration issue. Best practice? - I guess time will tell.

Thanks again,

Kind regards, Andrew