When Constants, aren’t. . .

Thanks to a comment from Rick, I decided to publish my utility for extracting the ‘constants’ from an OLB file. That’s an “Office Object Library” file and each Office application (and they can be different for different versions) has one. This utility was taken from Microsoft’s knowledgebase, commented and adjusted slightly for my needs and formatted with my 'Prg2Html' utility for posting here.

Note: This code utilizes objects that are included in the Tlbinf32.dll file. This dynamic-link library (.dll) file ships with Microsoft Visual Studio 98 Service Pack 4. If the file is not present and properly registered on your computer, the code below will fail.

So without further talk… here’s the code! I hope you find it as useful as I do.

*-----------------------------------*

*--------------------------------------------------*
*    Program: bldConstant                          *
*    Purpose: Load an OLB file and extract the     *
*             Constant definitions                 *
* Parameters: None                                 *
*    Returns: Nothing                              *
*--------------------------------------------------*
*-//- Note:                                        *
* It places the resulting constant file in the     *
* location specified by the user                   *
*--------------------------------------------------*
PUBLIC oGetConstant

oGetConstant=NEWOBJECT("GetConstant")
oGetConstant.SHOW

RETURN


*--Define the Form and its objects
DEFINE CLASS GetConstant AS FORM

  HEIGHT = 550
  WIDTH = 573
  DOCREATE = .T.
  AUTOCENTER = .T.
  BORDERSTYLE = 1
  CAPTION = ".OLB Constant Define Extractor"
  MAXBUTTON = .F.
  MINBUTTON = .F.
  NAME = "GetConstant"

  *--TextBox for the OLB file and path
  ADD OBJECT txtOlbFileName AS ;
    TEXTBOX WITH ;
      HEIGHT = 27, ;
      LEFT = 65, ;
      READONLY = .T., ;
      TABINDEX = 2, ;
      TOP = 6, ;
      WIDTH = 458, ;
      fontname = "Courier New", ;
      FontSize = 9, ;
      NAME = "txtOlbFileName"

  *--Label for the FileName
  ADD OBJECT lblFileName AS ;
    LABEL WITH ;
      AUTOSIZE = .T., ;
      CAPTION = ".\<OLB File:", ;
      HEIGHT = 17, ;
      LEFT = 4, ;
      TOP = 11, ;
      WIDTH = 55, ;
      TABINDEX = 1, ;
      NAME = "lblFileName"

  *--Button to find/locate the file
  ADD OBJECT cmdFindFile AS ;
    COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
      TOP = 6, ;
      LEFT = 533, ;
      HEIGHT = 27, ;
      WIDTH = 26, ;
      CAPTION = "...", ;
      TABINDEX = 3, ;
      NAME = "cmdFindFile"

  *--Editbox to hold the extracted constants
  ADD OBJECT edbShowConstants AS ;
    EDITBOX WITH ;
      HEIGHT = 473, ;
      LEFT = 6, ;
      READONLY = .T., ;
      TABINDEX = 4, ;
      TOP = 42, ;
      WIDTH = 563, ;
      FONTNAME  = "Courier New", ;
      FONTSIZE = 9, ;
      NAME = "edbShowConstants"

  *--Button to Extract the Constant definitions
  ADD OBJECT cmdLoadConstants AS ;
    COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
      TOP = 520, ;
      LEFT = 288, ;
      HEIGHT = 27, ;
      WIDTH = 112, ;
      CAPTION = "\<Extract Constants", ;
      ENABLED = .F., ;
      TABINDEX = 5, ;
      NAME = "cmdLoadConstants"

  *--Button to save the generated file
  ADD OBJECT cmdSave2Hfile AS ;
    COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
      TOP = 520, ;
      LEFT = 400, ;
      HEIGHT = 27, ;
      WIDTH = 84, ;
      CAPTION = "\<Save to .h", ;
      ENABLED = .F., ;
      TABINDEX = 6, ;
      NAME = "cmdSave2Hfile"

  *--Button to Exit the Form
  ADD OBJECT cmdExitForm AS ;
    COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
      TOP = 520, ;
      LEFT = 484, ;
      HEIGHT = 27, ;
      WIDTH = 84, ;
      CAPTION = "\<Quit", ;
      TABINDEX = 7, ;
      NAME = "cmdExitForm"

  *--------------------------------------*
  * -- Local Procedures and Functions -- *
  *--------------------------------------*
  PROCEDURE cmdFindFile.CLICK
  *--Find the OLB file to Process
  LOCAL cOlbFileName, lRetVal
  lRetVal = .F.

  cOlbFileName = GETFILE("OLB","OLB File","Open")
  IF !EMPTY(cOlbFileName)
    IF UPPER(RIGHT(cOlbFileName,3)) = "OLB"
      lRetVal = .T.
      THISFORM.txtOlbFileName.VALUE = cOlbFileName
      *--Now that we have a filename,
      *  enable the Load Button
      THISFORM.cmdLoadConstants.ENABLED= .T.
    ELSE
      MESSAGEBOX(cOlbFileName + ;
         " Is not an OLB file!",0)
    ENDIF
  ENDIF
  RETURN (lRetVal)
  ENDPROC

  *--------------------------------------*

  PROCEDURE cmdLoadConstants.CLICK
  *--Load constants from the OLB into the editbox
  WAIT WINDOW "Processing..." NOCLEAR NOWAIT
  LOCAL cTypeLibInfo, oConstants, ;
        cConstantStr, Obj, MEMBER
  #DEFINE CRLF CHR(13) + CHR(10)

  cTypeLibInfo = CREATEOBJECT("tli.typelibinfo")
  cTypeLibInfo.ContainingFile = ;
     (THISFORM.txtOlbFileName.VALUE)
  oConstants   = cTypeLibInfo.Constants

  cConstantStr = ""
  FOR EACH Obj IN cTypeLibInfo.Constants
    cConstantStr = cConstantStr + ;
        CRLF + "* " + Obj.NAME + CRLF
    FOR EACH MEMBER IN Obj.Members
      cConstantStr = cConstantStr + ;
          "#DEFINE " + MEMBER.NAME + " " + ;
          TRANSFORM(MEMBER.VALUE) + CRLF
    NEXT MEMBER
  NEXT Obj

  THISFORM.edbShowConstants.VALUE=cConstantStr
  THISFORM.cmdSave2Hfile.ENABLED= .T.
  WAIT CLEAR
  MESSAGEBOX("Done. . .",0,"Extract Constants")
  RETURN

  ENDPROC

  *--------------------------------------*

  PROCEDURE cmdSave2Hfile.CLICK
  *--Save the Constants to the file specified by
  *  the user, with a ".H" extension
  STRTOFILE(THISFORM.edbShowConstants.VALUE, ;
    PUTFILE("Header File", ;
      JUSTSTEM(THISFORM.txtOlbFileName.VALUE) + ;
         ".h",".h"))
  RETURN

  ENDPROC

  *--------------------------------------*

  PROCEDURE cmdExitForm.CLICK
  *--Exit the form
    THISFORM.RELEASE
  ENDPROC

ENDDEFINE
****************END CODE****************

*-----------------------------------*

So there you have it... Over the next few days, I'll be posting what I've been working on for the next step of the career journey, as well as some VB/VFP code translations for those of you who might be interested in what they look like.

The ability to 'drive' Microsoft Office, from within other applications, like Visual FoxPro, allows you to accomplish some very professional looking reports, spreadsheets, charts and graphs. Not to mention you can choose to 'show' your work, as in let the office application be visible, or, place it behind the scenes, and just show off your finished results. If you're not working on it yet, you should at least give it a try.

As always, thanks for stopping by!!

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