Using Automation with Reflection 2008

Visual Basic uses a standard set of protocols called Automation (or OLE Automation) that allows one application to communicate with other applications. Any application that supports Automation can communicate with any other application. This means that a Reflection 2008 session can communicate with other Reflection 2008 sessions, Microsoft Office products, Visio, stand-alone Visual Basic, or any other product that supports Automation.

Automation support provides a standardized way to control:

• Other applications from Reflection 2008
  For example, from Reflection 2008, you can start Excel, copy data from a host screen to an Excel spreadsheet, save the spreadsheet, and exit Excel.

  In this situation, Reflection 2008 is the controller (or client) that manipulates Excel, which is the object (or server).

• Reflection 2008 from other applications
  For instance, from Word you can start Reflection 2008, connect to a host, and then copy screen data from your session document to your Word document.

  In this situation, Reflection 2008 is the object (or server) being manipulated by Word, which is the controller (or client).

Automation support is provided by Visual Basic for Applications, and Reflection methods and properties. To manipulate another application, use Visual Basic commands to create an object for that application, and then control that object by using the object's methods and properties.