Design Applications Based on OLE on a Form

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) enables you to extend and enhance the capabilities and functionality of your applications by integrating data from other applications, such as spreadsheets, databases, and other data sources.

The Notes client provides excellent OLE support in that it is both an OLE automation controller and server. As an automation controller, you can use LotusScript to access OLE objects. As an automation server, Notes registers itself in your Registry as an automation server so that other applications can access both front-end and back-end Notes objects.

To access Notes objects with OLE, a Notes client must be installed on the machine where the external program will run.

Notes/Domino 6 uses COM API and OLE API, enabling other Microsoft applications to call Notes functions.

The following list outlines some of the many things OLE enables your applications to do:

• Link and embed objects in forms— This option enables you to embed an object such as a spreadsheet in a form, which then creates that object in every document created by the form. This feature is supported only in Notes client applications.

• Launch objects automatically— This option enables you to have a form automatically open an existing embedded object, or create a new one when the form is opened. In fact, the object can be opened whenever users create, edit, or read a document that uses that form. This feature does not work in Web applications.

• Add custom controls to a form— On the Windows platform, you can configure your applications to use custom controls (OCXs).

• Set up forms to exchange field information with other Notes documents— If you use applications that support NotesFX (field exchange), you can create forms that use OLE to share information with other applications in an automatic, bi-directional fashion. This option is not supported for Web applications.

• Publish an action— You can use either formulas or scripts to code actions and then add them to the Action menu of any NotesFX-enabled application. This feature works only in the Notes client environment.

• Embed JavaBeans— Much like OCXs, JavaBeans are self-contained objects written in Java that can be embedded and called from Notes forms. To use JavaBeans in this fashion, you must first install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

Many OLE-based technologies available in Domino are platform-dependent, and Windows provides by far the greatest range of options.