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Please review the following information to ensure ** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements ** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \example activeqt/comapp \title COM App Example (ActiveQt) \brief The COM App example shows how to use ActiveQt to develop a Qt application that can be automated via COM. Different QObject based classes are exposed as COM objects that communicate with the GUI of the running Qt application. The APIs of those COM objects has been designed to resemble the APIs of standard COM applications; i.e. those from Microsoft Office. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 2 The first class \c Application represents the application object. It exposes read-only properties \c documents and \c id to get access to the list of documents, and an identifier. A read/write property \c visible controls whether the QTabWidget-based user interface of the application should be visible, and a slot \c quit() terminates the application. The \e RegisterObject attribute is set to make sure that instances of this class are registered in COM's running object table (ROT) - this allows COM clients to connect to an already instantiated COM object. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 1 The \c DocumentList class stores a list of documents. It provides an API to read the number of documents, to access each document by index and to create a new document. The \c application property returns the root object. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 0 The \c Document class finally represents a document in the application. Each document is represented by a page in the application's tab widget, and has a title that is readable and writable through the document's API. The \c application property again returns the root object. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 3 The implementation of the \c Document class creates a new page for the tab widget, and uses the title of that page for the title property. The page is deleted when the document is deleted. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 4 The \c DocumentList implementation is straightforward. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 5 The \c Application class initializes the user interface in the constructor, and shows and hides it in the implementation of \c setVisible(). The object name (accessible through the \c id property) is set to \c "From QAxFactory" to indicate that this COM object has been created by COM. Note that there is no destructor that would delete the QTabWidget - this is instead done in the \c quit() slot, before calling QApplication::quit() through a single-shot-timer, which is necessary ensure that the COM call to the slot is complete. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 6 The classes are exported from the server using the QAxFactory macros. Only \c Application objects can be instantiated from outside - the other APIs can only be used after accessing the respective objects throught the \c Application API. \snippet examples/activeqt/comapp/main.cpp 7 The main() entry point function creates a QApplication, and just enters the event loop if the application has been started by COM. If the application has been started by the user, then the \c Application object is created and the object name is set to "From Application". Then the COM server is started, and the application object is registered with COM. It is now accessible to COM clients through the client-specific APIs. Application exiting is controlled explicitly - if COM started the application, then the client code has to call quit(); if the user started the application, then the application terminates when the last window has been closed. Finally, the user interface is made visible, and the event loop is started. A simple Visual Basic application could now access this Qt application. In VB, start a new "Standard Exe" project and add a project reference to the comappLib type library. Create a form with a listbox "DocumentList", a static label "DocumentsCount" and a command button "NewDocument". Finally, implement the code for the form like this: \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_examples_activeqt_comapp.qdoc 0 To build the example you must first build the QAxServer library. Then run \c qmake and your make tool in \c{examples\activeqt\comapp}. */