How to use COM / ActiveX with Rhino

[StSchnell]

The Component Object Model (COM, also known as ActiveX or OLE) is an interesting technology in the context of Windows OS. The programmatic interaction with other software such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word or the scripting of the SAP GUI for Windows is realized on this basis. Reason enough to take a look at how Rhino JavaScript can use this approach. The Java COM Bridge (JaCoB) is used to make this possible. This makes it very easy to call COM automation components with Java.

Here an example with the WScript server, which is available on any Windows OS installation. In this example the classes Network and Shell are used. The network class is used to detect different attributes. The Shell class is used to call a native Windows popup with several parameters and to start and remotely control a program, in this case the calculator.

/**
 * Example of using COM technology with Rhino JavaScript
 */

const jacob = JavaImporter(
  com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent,
  com.jacob.com.ComThread,
  com.jacob.com.JacobReleaseInfo,
  com.jacob.com.Variant
);

CreateObject = (serverClassName) => {
  /**
   * Creates and returns a reference to an Automation object.
   *
   * @params {string} serverClassName - Application name providing the
   *   object and type or class of the object to create.
   * @returns {Object}
   */
  return jacob.ActiveXComponent(serverClassName);
}

function main() {

  try {

    print(
      "COM test with Java COM Bridge (JaCoB) " +
      jacob.JacobReleaseInfo.getBuildVersion() +
      "\n"
    );

    jacob.ComThread.InitSTA();


    // Example WScript - Network
    const wScriptNet = CreateObject("WScript.Network");


    // Different ways to handle variant variables
    print(
      "UserDomain: " + wScriptNet.getProperty("UserDomain").toString()
    );
    print(
      "ComputerName: " + wScriptNet.getPropertyAsString("ComputerName")
    );
    const userName = wScriptNet.getProperty("UserName");
    print(
      "UserName: "  + userName.getString()
    );


    // Example WScript - Shell
    const wScriptShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell");


    // Displays text in a pop-up message box
    let arr = java.lang.reflect.Array.newInstance(jacob.Variant, 4);
    java.lang.reflect.Array.set(arr, 0, jacob.Variant("Hello World"))
    java.lang.reflect.Array.set(arr, 1, jacob.Variant(5))
    java.lang.reflect.Array.set(arr, 2, jacob.Variant("JaCoB"))
    java.lang.reflect.Array.set(arr, 3, jacob.Variant(1 + 64))
    let buttonClicked = wScriptShell.invoke("Popup", arr );
    print("buttonClicked: " + buttonClicked.toString());


    // User input simulation
    wScriptShell.invoke("Run", "calc");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(500);
    wScriptShell.invoke("AppActivate", "Rechner"); // Localization
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "1{+}");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(250);
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "2");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(500);
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "~");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(250);
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "*3");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(500);
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "~");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(250);
    wScriptShell.invoke("SendKeys", "%{F4}");
    java.lang.Thread.sleep(250);


  } catch (exception) {
    print(exception);
  } finally {
    jacob.ComThread.Release();
  }

}

main();

As we can see, COM can be seamlessly integrated and used in Rhino with JaCoB. This can open up interesting horizons through the combination of JavaScript, Java and COM components that offer functionalities that would otherwise not be available.

[commonsuppliz]

Please try to generate your com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent to .net assembly and code with C# using .net framework using .NET Javascript library, like Jint, Jurassic, NilJS.