Using OLE

Acrobat Interapplication Communication > Developing Applications Using Interapplication Communication > Using OLE

Using OLE

This chapter describes how you can use OLE 2.0 support in Adobe Acrobat for Microsoft Windows. Acrobat applications are OLE servers and also respond to a variety of OLE automation messages.

Since Acrobat provides the appropriate interfaces to be an OLE server, you can embed PDF documents into documents created by an application that is an OLE client, or link them to OLE containers. However, Acrobat does not perform in-place activation.

Acrobat supports the OLE automation methods that are summarized in this chapter and described fully in the Interapplication Communication API Reference. Adobe Reader does not support OLE automation, except for the PDF browser controls provided in the AcroPDF object.

The best practical resources for Visual Basic or Visual C# programmers, besides the object browser, are the sample projects. The samples demonstrate use of the Acrobat OLE objects and contain comments describing the parameters for the more complicated methods. For more information see the Guide to SDK Samples.

This chapter contains the following information:

Topic

Description

OLE capabilities in Acrobat

Describes at a high level what you can do with OLE for interapplication communication.

Development environment considerations

Describes the benefits and drawbacks of using particular development environments and the required knowledge for each environment.

Using the Acrobat OLE interfaces

Explains the use of the CAcro and COLEDispatchDriver classes.

Using the JSObject interface

Explains the JSObject interface and provides examples of how it can be used.

Other development topics

Provides miscellaneous information about OLE automation.

Summary of OLE objects and methods

Provides a diagram of the OLE objects and methods and how they are related.

For more information on OLE 2.0 and OLE automation, see the OLE Automation Programmer’s Reference, ISBN 1-55615-851-3, Microsoft Press. You can also find numerous articles at http://msdn.microsoft.com.

Topic	Description
OLE capabilities in Acrobat	Describes at a high level what you can do with OLE for interapplication communication.
Development environment considerations	Describes the benefits and drawbacks of using particular development environments and the required knowledge for each environment.
Using the Acrobat OLE interfaces	Explains the use of the CAcro and COLEDispatchDriver classes.
Using the JSObject interface	Explains the JSObject interface and provides examples of how it can be used.
Other development topics	Provides miscellaneous information about OLE automation.
Summary of OLE objects and methods	Provides a diagram of the OLE objects and methods and how they are related.

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