A COM Object Example

 

Suppose that you are developing a sales information system to provide your sales reps with detailed customer information prior to making each call. You want to enhance the system to include a map showing the customer's office and retail facility locations.

 

To implement such an application, the client application and the Maptitude COM Object would work in tandem as follows:

• The client program gets the name of the customer from the user

• The client program retrieves data on the customer from its own database

• The client "tells" the COM Object to create a map showing the customer location, or to open an existing map and modify the scope to show the customer location

• The client "tells" the COM Object to save the map in a format readable by the client program

• The client program arranges a form that shows the map and customer data to the user

In this process, the requests that the client makes of the COM Object are implemented using COM calls sent from the client to the server.

 

The delivery of the completed map can be implemented in several different ways. For example, the COM Object can save the completed map to an image file and the client program retrieves to display it, for example, on a Image Control.

 

GISDK includes a complete client-server application that uses Maptitude to provide maps to other programs. When you installed Maptitude, a VBA client program and its source code were stored in the actxFRM.FRM file and its associated files in the c: \Program Files\Maptitude 2025 \ gisdk\samples\VB  folder.

 

Tutorial: To Run the Map Server Demonstration

1. Make sure that Maptitude is running. (It will still work if Maptitude is not already running, but the COM Object will start up in the background with no visible window on the desktop).

2. In the  c: \Program Files\Maptitude 2025\ gisdk\samples\VB folder, open the MaptServer.vbproj file (You should have a Visual Studio version to open and test this project)

3. Once the project is loaded in  Visual Studio, click, run Start to test it

4. Type "New Haven" and click OK. A map appears after being updated by the COM Object.

5. Try out a few more cities (Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, Storrs, etc.). Each time you type a city, the program requests an updated map from the COM Object, and the COM Object provides the updated map for display by the client.

Tutorial: To Run a VBA application in Excel

1. Make sure that Maptitude is running. (It will still work if Maptitude is not already running, but the COM Object will start up in the background with no visible window on the desktop).

2. Open Excel.

3. Click the Developer Menu and then the Visual Basic Icon.

4. In the Visual Basic for Applications window do File / Import File and navigate to the  Maptitude program folder and then to the gisdk\samples\VBA folder.

5. Choose the ACTIVEXFRM.FRM file.

6. Expand the Forms branch, and double click on the Form Icon.

7. Click F5 to run the macro.

8. Type "New Haven" and click OK. A map appears after being updated by the COM Object.

9. Try out a few more cities (Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, Storrs, etc.). Each time you type a city, the VBA program requests an updated map from the COM Object, and the COM Object provides the updated map for display by the client.

10. Click Exit to quit the client application.

 

For more information, see...

Accessing Maptitude as a COM Object