@rtweeks/winax

Name

Windows C++ Node.JS addon, that implements COM IDispatch object wrapper, analog ActiveXObject on cscript.exe

Features

• Using ITypeInfo for conflict resolution between property and method (for example !rs.EOF not working without type information, becose need define EOF as an object)

• Using optional parameters on constructor call

var con = new ActiveXObject("ADODB.Connection", {
	activate: false, // Allow activate existance object instance, false by default
	async: true, // Allow asynchronius calls, true by default (not implemented, for future usage)
	type: true	// Allow using type information, true by default
});

• Create COM object from JS object and may be send as argument (for example send to Excel procedure)

var com_obj = new ActiveXObject({
	text: test_value,
	obj: { params: test_value },
	arr: [ test_value, test_value, test_value ],
	func: function(v) { return v*2; }
});

• Additional COM variant types support:
  • int - VT_INT
  • uint - VT_UINT
  • int8, char - VT_I1
  • uint8, uchar, byte - VT_UI1
  • int16, short - VT_I2
  • uint16, ushort - VT_UI2
  • int32 - VT_I4
  • uint32 - VT_UI4
  • int64, long - VT_I8
  • uint64, ulong - VT_UI8
  • currency - VT_CY
  • float - VT_R4
  • double - VT_R8
  • string - VT_BSTR
  • date - VT_DATE
  • decimal - VT_DECIMAL
  • variant - VT_VARIANT
  • null - VT_NULL
  • empty - VT_EMPTY
  • byref - VT_BYREF or use prefix 'p' to indicate reference to the current type

var winax = require('winax');
var Variant = winax.Variant;

// create variant instance 
var v_short = new Variant(17, 'short');
var v_short_byref = new Variant(17, 'pshort');
var v_int_byref = new Variant(17, 'byref');
var v_byref = new Variant(v_short, 'byref');

// create variant arrays
var v_array_of_variant = new Variant([1,'2',3]);
var v_array_of_short = new Variant([1,'2',3], 'short');
var v_array_of_string = new Variant([1,'2',3], 'string');	

// change variant content
var v_test = new Variant();
v_test.assign(17);
v_test.cast('string');
v_test.clear();

// also may be used cast function
var v_short_from_cast = winax.cast(17, 'short');

• Additional dignostic propeties:
  • __id - dispatch identity, for exmplae: [e-mail]
  • __value - value of dispatch object, equiles valueOf()
  • __type - array all member items with their properties
  • __methods - list member mathods by names (ITypeInfo::GetFuncDesc)
  • __vars - list member variables by names (ITypeInfo::GetVarDesc)

Usage example

Install package throw NPM (see below Building for details)

npm install winax
npm install winax --msvs_version=2015
npm install winax --msvs_version=2017

Create ADO Connection throw global function

require('winax');
var con = new ActiveXObject('ADODB.Connection');

Or using Object prototype

var winax = require('winax');
var con = new winax.Object('ADODB.Connection');

Open connection and create simple table

con.Open('Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\tmp;Extended Properties="DBASE IV;"', '', '');
con.Execute("Create Table persons.dbf (Name char(50), City char(50), Phone char(20), Zip decimal(5))");
con.Execute("Insert into persons.dbf Values('John', 'London','123-45-67','14589')");
con.Execute("Insert into persons.dbf Values('Andrew', 'Paris','333-44-55','38215')");
con.Execute("Insert into persons.dbf Values('Romeo', 'Rom','222-33-44','54323')");

Select query and return RecordSet object

var rs = con.Execute("Select * from persons.dbf"); 
var reccnt = rs.RecordCount;

Inspect RecordSet fields

var fields = rs.Fields;
var fldcnt = fields.Count;

Process records

rs.MoveFirst();
while (!rs.EOF) {
	var name = fields("Name").value;
	var town = fields("City").value;
	var phone = fields("Phone").value;
	var zip = fields("Zip").value;   
	console.log("> Person: " + name + " from " + town + " phone: " + phone + " zip: " + zip);    
	rs.MoveNext();
}

Or using fields by index

rs.MoveFirst();
while (rs.EOF != false) {
	var name = fields[0].value;
	var town = fields[1].value;
	var phone = fields[2].value;
	var zip = fields[3].value;   
	console.log("> Person: " + name + " from " + town + " phone: " + phone + " zip: " + zip);    
	rs.MoveNext();
}

Release COM objects (but other temporary objects may be keep references too)

winax.release(con, rs, fields)

Working with Excel ranges using two dimension arrays (from 1.18.0 version)

• The second dimension is only deduced from the first array.
• If data is missing at the time of SafeArrayPutElement, VT_EMPTY is used.
• Best way to explicitly pass VT_EMPTY is to use null
• If the SAFEARRAY dims are smaller than those of the range, the missing cells are emptied.
• Exception to 4! Excel may process the SAFEARRAY as it does when processing a copy/paste operation

var excel = new winax.Object("Excel.Application", { activate: true });
var wbk = excel.Workbooks.Add(template_filename);
var wsh = wbk.Worksheets.Item(1);
wsh.Range("C3:E4").Value = [ ["C3", "D3", "E3" ], ["C4", "D4", "E4" ] ];
wsh.Range("C3:E4").Value = [ ["C3", "D3", "E3" ], "C4" ]; // will let D4 and E4 empty
wsh.Range("C3:E4").Value = [ [null, "D3", "E3" ], "C4" ]; // will let C3, D4 and E4 empty
wsh.Range("C3:F4").Value = [ [100], [200] ]; // will duplicate the two rows in colums C, D, E, and F
wsh.Range("C3:F4").Value = [ [100, 200, 300, 400] ]; // will duplicate the for cols in rows 3 and 4
wsh.Range("C3:F4").Value = [ [100, 200] ]; // Will correctly duplicate the first two cols, but col E and F with contains "#N/A"
const data = wsh.Range("C3:E4").Value.valueOf();
console.log("Cell E4 value is", data[1][2]);

Tutorial and Examples

• examples/ado.js

Building

This project uses Visual C++ 2013 (or later versions then support C++11 standard). Bulding also requires node-gyp and python 2.6 (or later) to be installed. You can do this with npm:

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

To obtain and build use console commands:

git clone git://github.com/durs/node-axtivex.git
cd node-activex
npm install

or debug version

npm install --debug

or using node-gyp directly

node-gyp configure
node-gyp build

For Electron users, need rebuild with a different V8 version:

npm rebuild winax --runtime=electron --target=2.0.2 --disturl=https://atom.io/download/atom-shell --build-from-source

Change --target value to your electron version. See also Electron Documentation: Using Native Node Modules.

Tests

mocha is required to run unit tests.

npm install -g mocha
mocha test

Contributors

• durs
• somanuell