• Information about OLE interfaces sometimes hard to get
• OLE allows querying for information about available

  • Methods and their arguments

  • Properties and their type

  • Events and their arguments

  • Constants and their values

    if the Windows program publishes this information!

• OLEObject can be used to query published information
  • Need to supply the ProgID or CLSID
  • ooRexx can be used to find all installed COM and OLE classes with a ProgID !

• Included in ooRexx 5.1.0 (released: May 2025), location:
  • oorexx\samples\ole\oleinfo
• For older ooRexx versions (ooRexx < 5.1.0)
  • https://sourceforge.net/p/oorexx/code-0/HEAD/tree/sandbox/rony/oleinfo/
  • Zip-archive: https://wi.wu.ac.at/rgf/wu/lehre/autowin/material/resources
• Utility programs
  • listProgIds.rex: list all ProgId (optionally ClsId) entries in the Windows registry
  • createOleInfo.rex: create HTML documentation for the Windows program with the supplied ProgId/ClsId
  • getOleConstants.rex: create an ooRexx program with the Window program's constants and which can be loaded via the ooRexx ::requires directive

• Analyzes the Windows registry

• Lists all COM/OLE classes with a ProgId

  • The result can differ depending on the bitness of ooRexx
    • 32-bit ooRexx will get to see the 32-bit area of the registry
    • 64-bit ooRexx will get to see the 64-bit area of the registry

• Usage (command)

  rexx listProgIds [0|1]  [fragment]

  • Optional: "0" (default: show ProgId only) or "1" (show CLSID in addition)
  • Optional: ProgId must contain supplied fragment (caseless comparison)

rexx listProgIds.rex

rexx listProgIds.rex explorer

• Creates an OLEObject instance from the ProgId or CLSID

• Queries all interfaces for methods, properties, events and constants

• Creates an HTML text file

• Displays the results in the default web browser

• Usage (command)

  rexx createOleInfo.rex ProgId | CLSID [0|1] [0|1]

  • ProgId or CLSID (either must be supplied)
  • Optional: "0" (default: long format) or "1" (short reference format)
  • Optional: "0" (do not display result) or "1" (default: display result in web browser)

• createOleInfo.rex can be called from within a ooRexx program

  • The first argument is an OLEObject object returned by a Windows program
  • Allows one to document OLE objects for which no ProgId may exist

• Usage from within an ooRexx program

  call createOleInfo.rex OleObject, [Title], [0|1], [0|1]

  • OleObject
  • Optional Title (an informative string) for the generated HTML document
  • Optional: "0" (default: long format) or "1" (short reference format)
  • Optional: "0" (do not display result) or "1" (default: display result in web browser)

rexx createOleInfo.rex InternetExplorer.Application

rexx createOleInfo.rex InternetExplorer.Application

rexx createOleInfo.rex InternetExplorer.Application 1

• Creates an ooRexx program that contains all published constants

  • Program saves all constants in the .local directory with the index OLE.CONST
    • Any entry in .local or .environment can be referenced with an environment symbol
      • .ole.const returns therefore the stringtable with the saved OLE constants
  • Sending the name of the constant to .ole.const returns its value
    • E.g. .ole.const~RGBBROWN may return the value 2763429 for Excel
  • It is possible to require different generated constant programs
    • All constants will always be saved in a stringtable named .ole.const

• Usage (command)

  rexx getOleConstants.rex ProgId | CLSID [filename]

  • ProgId or CLSID (either must be supplied)
  • Optional: filename to store the generated Rexx program, otherwise writes to stdout

• Example

  rexx getOleConstants.rex Excel.Application constExcel.rex

  • Queries Excel for all its published constants

  • Creates a Rexx program that stores all constants into the .ole.const stringtable

  • Saves that Rexx program in a file named constExcel.rex

    /* demonstrate how to access an Excel constant */
    say "Excel constant for the color brown:" .ole.const~RgbBrown /* yields: 2763429 */
    
    ::requires "constExcel.rex"   -- make Excel constants available via .ole.const

  • Any ooRexx program can then require constExcel.rex and access .ole.const

    Possible Output:

    Excel constant for the color brown: 2763429