FlexPro Professional
Automation
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is integrated into FlexPro 6 Professional. This includes a complete development environment with project management, code editor with IntelliSense technology and a powerful debugger. The automation standard from Microsoft serves as the basis for the integration of VBA in FlexPro. This technology makes it possible to control FlexPro remotely with one of many different programming languages such as Basic, Java and C++. Automation not only functions within FlexPro with VBA, but also externally. FlexPro can even be controlled remotely by a program running on another computer on the network. The programs created with FlexPro VBA are automatically translated into machine language and run with exceptional performance within FlexPro.
Based on automation technology, FlexPro offers an object-oriented interface - the automation object model. The object model organizes all objects available in FlexPro into a well - structured hierarchy. The root of the object model is the application object, which is similar to the FlexPro frame window. The hierarchical structure of the object model is the result of the fact that objects can contain so - called collections, which in turn can contain other objects. The application object from FlexPro contains, for example, the databases collection, which contains all currently open databases, or database objects. Each object in the object model consists of a number of properties, methods and events. A property is an attribute of an object or an aspect of its behavior. For instance, the properties of a diagram include its name, the appearance of its grid lines, but also whether the cursors are active. A method is an action that an object can perform. For example, since a FlexPro document can be printed, the document object also has a PrintOut method. Methods often have arguments that determine more accurately how the action is performed. Events are triggered when certain situations occur in the program. These events can be processed in event procedures programmed by the user.
VBA and automation technology are found in many Windows software packages, including the Microsoft Office range of products. Consequently, it is possible to automate processes that cross over to many applications, e.g., automatically transferring data from Excel to FlexPro, mathematically analysing these data there and then transferring the resulting diagram into a Word document. A complete industry has meanwhile been built around Visual Basic and automation, enabling developers to fall back on a multitude of ready-made ActiveX controls to accomplish such things as capturing data, accessing databases or creating user interfaces.