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Description

The OLEServer object allows you to export an APL namespace so that its functions and variables become directly accessible to an OLE Automation client application such as Microsoft Visual Basic or Microsoft Excel.

An OLEServer may be saved as an out-of-process OLE server (in a workspace) or as an in-process OLE server (in a DLL). See Interface Guide for details.

When you create an OLEServer object, APL allocates various OLE attributes to it. For example, the CLSID, which uniquely identifies the object, is assigned at this stage. However, the object is not actually registered until you execute )SAVE.

Registration involves updating the Windows registry with information about the object itself, such as its name, the command required to obtain it and so forth. Registration also records information about all of the functions and variables that your object exposes. Registration is therefore a non-trivial operation and should be delayed until the point when you are ready to test your OLEServer.

You may create an empty OLEServer object and then define functions and variables within it. Alternatively, you may convert an existing namespace which is already populated with functions and variables. The latter method is recommended as it implies less registry activity during the development of the object.

The ExportedFns and ExportedVars properties specify the names of the functions and variables that will be exposed by the object to OLE clients.

The RunMode property is a character vector that specifies how the object serves multiple clients. It may be 'MultiUse' (the default), 'SingleUse', or 'RunningObject'.

The ShowSession property is either 0 (the default) or 1 and specifies whether or not the APL Session window is displayed when the first instance of the OLEServer is created.

RunMode and ShowSession apply only to out-of-process OLEServers.