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com 0.4.0

# COM # COM is an object-oriented wrapper around WIN32OLE. COM makes it easy to add behavior to WIN32OLE objects, making them easier to work with from Ruby. ## Usage ## Using COM is rather straightforward. There’s basically four concepts to keep track of: 1. COM objects 2. Instantiable COM objects 3. COM events 4. COM errors Let’s look at each concept separately, using the following example as a base. module Word end class Word::Application Word::WdAlertsNone){ yield } end def documents end def quit(saving = Word::WdDoNotSaveChanges, *args) com.quit saving, *args end end ### COM Objects ### A COM::Object is a wrapper around a COM object. It provides error specialization, which is discussed later and a few utility methods. You typically use it to wrap COM objects that are returned by COM methods. If we take the example given in the introduction, Word::Documents is a good candidate: class Word::Documents false, 'readonly' => true, 'addtorecentfiles' => false, 'visible' => false }.freeze def open(path, options = {}) options = DefaultOpenOptions.merge(options) options['filename'] = Pathname(path).to_com end end Here we override the #open method to be a bit easier to use, providing sane defaults for COM interaction. Worth noting is the use of the #com method to access the actual COM object to invoke the #open method on it. Also note that Word::Document is also a COM::Object. COM::Object provides a convenience method called #with_properties, which is used in the #without_interaction method above. It lets you set properties on the COM::Object during the duration of a block, restoring them after it exits (successfully or with an error). ### Instantiable COM Objects ### Instantiable COM objects are COM objects that we can connect to and that can be created. The Word::Application object can, for example, be created. Instantiable COM objects should inherit from COM::Instantiable. Instantiable COM objects can be told what program ID to use, whether or not to allow connecting to an already running object, and to load its associated constants upon creation. The program ID is used to determine what instantiable COM object to connect to. By default the name of the COM::Instantiable class’ name is used, taking the last two double-colon-separated components and joining them with a dot. For Word::Application, the program ID is “Word.Application”. The program ID can be set by using the .program_id method: class IDontCare::ForConventions


  1. 0.4.0 - June 19, 2012 (16 KB)
  2. 0.3.1 - October 17, 2011 (15.5 KB)
  3. 0.3.0 - October 14, 2011 (15.5 KB)

Development Dependencies:


  • Nikolai Weibull



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