Automation
 Microsoft
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is integrated into FlexPro 7 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
analyzing 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.
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