WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]= method in Ruby 1.9 (or later)

Masaki Suketa

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Mar 25, 2006, 8:20:34 AM3/25/06

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Hello,

I have a question about Win32OLE.
I think that I'll change the behavior of WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]=
in Ruby 1.9 or later.

I have not commited the change yet.
Before commiting it, I want suggestions or opinions from Win32OLE users.

For example,
excel = WIN32OLE.excel("Excel.Application")
excel["Visible"] = true
is NG.
Instead, You must write
excel = WIN32OLE.excel("Excel.Application")
excel.Visible = true

For more,
installer = WIN32OLE.new("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
record = installer.CreateRecord(2)
record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'

is NG. Instead,
installer = WIN32OLE.new("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
record = installer.CreateRecord(2)
record.setproperty("StringData", 1, 'dddd')

By using new featuer, You can write

worksheet.cells[1,2] = 10

in Excel.

For more, you can write

WIN32OLE.new("WScript.Shell")
env = sh.Environment("User")
p env["FOO"]
env["FOO"] = "BARBAZ"

For more, you can write

ado = WIN32OLE.new("ADODB.Connection")
ado.Open("...")
rs = ado.Execute("SELECT * from TABLE01")
while !rs.EOF
puts rs.Fields.Item("id").value
puts rs.Fields("id").value
puts rs["id"].value # This is new feature!
rs.MoveNext
end

and so on. Any comment, any question, welcome.

Regards,
Masaki Suketa

Dave Burt

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Mar 25, 2006, 9:21:21 AM3/25/06

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Hi!

Masaki Suketa wrote:
> I have a question about Win32OLE.
> I think that I'll change the behavior of WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]=
> in Ruby 1.9 or later.
>
> I have not commited the change yet.
> Before commiting it, I want suggestions or opinions from Win32OLE users.

No longer allowed:
> excel["Visible"] = true

> record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'

New:
> worksheet.cells[1,2] = 10
> env["FOO"] = "BARBAZ"

> puts rs["id"].value # This is new feature!

Excellent! This makes a lot more sense than the existing function of [] and
[]=.

When I first used WIN32OLE, I was surprised that you couldn't use [] to
access index operations.

I haven't used obj[prop, n] before, that I can recall. I think neither that
nor setproperty() are the ideal Ruby syntax for this operation, but [] seems
better. How about this:

> record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'

> record.setproperty("StringData", 1, 'dddd')

record[:StringData][1] = 'dddd'

Possible implementation:
class WIN32OLE
class Property
attr_reader :object, :name
def initialize(obj, name)
unless obj.kind_of?(WIN32OLE)
raise TypeError.new("cannot convert #{obj.inspect} to
WIN32OLE")
end
self.object = obj
self.name = name.to_s
end
def [](*args)
object.getproperty(name, *args)
end
def []=(*args)
object.setproperty(name, *args)
end
end
def [](*args)
if args.size == 1 && args[0].kind_of?(Symbol)
return Property.new(self, *args)
end
# everything else
end
end

(I realize there's 'win32ole/property' already, but I don't know exactly
what its purpose is.)

Thanks a lot for WIN32OLE, Masaki Suketa!

Cheers,
Dave

rtilley

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Mar 25, 2006, 7:10:14 PM3/25/06

to

Masaki Suketa wrote:
> and so on. Any comment, any question, welcome.
>
> Regards,
> Masaki Suketa

I have been using WIN32OLE like this:

def test_get_serial
bios = WIN32OLE.connect("winmgmts:\\\\.")
bios.InstancesOf("win32_bios").each do |item|
return item.serialnumber
end
end

Thank you.
Brad

Masaki Suketa

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Mar 27, 2006, 5:43:00 AM3/27/06

to

Hello,

In message "Re: WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]= method in Ruby 1.9 (or later)"

on 06/03/25, "Dave Burt" <da...@burt.id.au> writes:

> I haven't used obj[prop, n] before, that I can recall. I think neither that
> nor setproperty() are the ideal Ruby syntax for this operation, but [] seems
> better. How about this:
>
> > record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'
> > record.setproperty("StringData", 1, 'dddd')
>
> record[:StringData][1] = 'dddd'

Thank you. It is very interesting.
I think about it.

> (I realize there's 'win32ole/property' already, but I don't know exactly
> what its purpose is.)

It is helper class of early binding of WIN32OLE.
For example,
ext/win32ole/sample/olegen.rb uses it.
And,
ruby olegen.rb 'Microsoft ActiveX Data Object N.N Library'
creates some property which uses OLEProperty.

Yes, it is not so convenient.

Regards,
Masaki Suketa

Dave Burt

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Mar 27, 2006, 6:17:17 AM3/27/06

to

Hi again,

Masaki Suketa wrote:
> In message "Re: WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]= method in Ruby 1.9 (or
> later)"
> on 06/03/25, "Dave Burt" <da...@burt.id.au> writes:
>
>> > record.setproperty("StringData", 1, 'dddd')
>>
>> record[:StringData][1] = 'dddd'
>
> Thank you. It is very interesting.
> I think about it.

It's not ideal, but WIN32OLE doesn't use Symbols - VBScript and JScript
don't have them.
We're trying to match this VBScript, right?

record.StringData(1) = "dddd"

As far as I understand, we can't make record.StringData(1) = "dddd" or
record.StringData[1] = "dddd" work while keeping the same dynamic call
functionality we already have (StringData should be called as a method in
both cases) but what about another option:

record.StringData{1} = "dddd"

The rule would be similar to the above, but instead of looking for a symbol,
you're looking for block_given? and using "yield" as the index/parameter to
the property.
Although, in a sense, this matches semantic-for-semantic less than the
[:StringData] version, and that's what I like best about the change you're
suggesting - use Ruby's index operators for the same purpose in OLE.

Thanks again for your efforts on this project,
Dave