Open a Session From a Microsoft Excel Macro
You can open a Reflection session from another application that supports VBA.
Visual Basic uses a standard set of protocols called Automation (or OLE Automation) that allows one application to communicate with other applications. Any application that supports Automation can communicate with any other application. This means that a Reflection session can communicate with other Reflection sessions, Microsoft Office products, stand-alone Visual Basic, or any other product that supports Automation.
This example shows how to open a Reflection session document from an Excel macro.
If you prefer to run macros in pre-configured sessions instead of creating your own sessions, you can download the VBA Sample Sessions and open the open-ibm-session-from-excel.xlsm (IBM) and open-os-session-from-excel.xlsm (Open Systems) files. The download package contains everything you need to run the macros in these files. See Download the VBA Sample Sessions.
Open a Reflection session from an Excel Macro
- In Reflection, create a session and save it as "mySavedSession" in your ...\Documents\Micro Focus\Reflection\" folder.
- In a Microsoft Excel worksheet, open the Visual Basic Editor and insert a new code module.
- On the Excel VBA Editor Tools menu, select References and then select the following Reflection Libraries:
- Attachmate_Reflection_Objects
- Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Emulation_IbmHosts (if you want to open an IBM session)
- Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Emulation_OpenSystems (if you want to open an Open Systems session)
- Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Framework
- Copy the following code into the VBA Editor and press F5 to run it.
| Open a session |
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Private Sub OpenReflectionIBMSession()
'Declare an object variable for the Reflection application
Dim app As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Framework.ApplicationObject
'Declare frame, terminal, and view object variables:
Dim frame As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects.frame
Dim terminal As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Emulation_IbmHosts.IbmTerminal
Dim view As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects.view
'If an instance of Reflection is open, get a handle to it
On Error Resume Next
Set app = GetObject("Reflection Workspace")
'Otherwise, create a new instance of Reflection
On Error GoTo 0
If IsEmpty(app) Or (app Is Nothing) Then
Set app = New Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Framework.ApplicationObject
End If
With app
'wait until Reflection initializes
Do While .IsInitialized = False
.Wait 200
Loop
'Get a handle to the Frame object
Set frame = .GetObject("Frame")
'Make the frame visible so we can view the workspace
frame.Visible = True
End With
'Create an Ibm3270 control using an .rd3x session document file
Set terminal = app.CreateControl(Environ$("USERPROFILE") & _
"\Documents\Micro Focus\Reflection\" & "mySavedSession.rd3x")
'Create a view so that we can display the session
Set view = frame.CreateView(terminal)
End Sub
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| Open a session |
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Private Sub OpenReflectionOpenSystemsSession()
'Declare an object variable for the Reflection application
Dim app As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Framework.ApplicationObject
'Declare frame, terminal, and view object variables:
Dim frame As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects.frame
Dim terminal As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Emulation_OpenSystems.terminal
Dim view As Attachmate_Reflection_Objects.view
'If an instance of Reflection is already open, get a handle to it
On Error Resume Next
Set app = GetObject("Reflection Workspace")
'Otherwise, create a new instance of Reflection
On Error GoTo 0
If IsEmpty(app) Or (app Is Nothing) Then
Set app = New Attachmate_Reflection_Objects_Framework.ApplicationObject
End If
With app
'wait until Reflection is initialized
Do While .IsInitialized = False
.Wait 200
Loop
'Get a handle to the Frame object.
Set frame = .GetObject("Frame")
'Make the frame visible so we can view the workspace
frame.Visible = True
End With
'Create an Open Systems terminal control using an .rdox sesssion document file
Set terminal = app.CreateControl(Environ$("USERPROFILE") & _
"\Documents\Micro Focus\Reflection\" & "mySavedSession.rdox")
'Create a view so that we can display the session
Set view = frame.CreateView(terminal)
End Sub
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Concepts
To open a session from another application, you'll need to use the Reflection ApplicationObject, IbmTerminal or Terminal, Frame, and View objects:
- The ApplicationObject is the Reflection application.
- The Frame object is the top-level user interface component for the workspace and it can be used to control the display of the workspace and to create views for the terminal controls running in the workspace.
- The IbmTerminal (or Terminal) object is the top level control for the new session. The CreateControl method returns the appropriate terminal control for the session document file that you pass to it.
- The View object represents the user interface aspect of the new session. To display the session, we need to create a View Object for the terminal and we do this using the Frame object.
For more about these objects, see Using the Reflection Object Model.
