External activeX components that run outside of the SAP GUI window as independent applications can be called and managed with VB.NET standard tools.

As an example for using an external activeX component we implement a spelling check for a GuiXT textBox using Microsoft Word. The user types in a long text and can trigger the spell check with a pushbutton. We then start a word application, pass the text and call the spell check. The user can correct the text which will then be transferred to the GuiXT textbox automatically.

The GuiXT script creates a textbox, a pushbutton and a group frame for these two elements:

Box (15,1) (26,72) "Text (Demo GuiXT Controls)"
Textbox (16,1) (24,72) name="iwtext"
Pushbutton (25,2) "Spell check" process="spellcheck.txt"

It looks like this:

The InputScript "spellcheck.txt" calls a VB.NET function "spellcheck" and passes the name, "iwtext", of the GuiXT longtext that we want checked:

CallVB msg = utilities.class1.spellcheck "iwtext"

if V[msg=ok]
  Message "S: Spellcheck ok" -statusline
else
  Message "E: &V[msg]" -statusline
endif

Return

The VB.NET function alters the longtext "iwtext" via the word spell checker. If any technical error occurs, e.g. MS word is not installed on this PC, the VB.NET functions returns an error message.

We create the "word" object and then copy the GuiXT long text into the document. After that we call the interactive spell checker. The corrected text is put back into the GuiXT text variable, whereby line breaks can cause trouble. This can be avoided by replacing all occurences of CR by CRLF: Word only returns CR at the end of a line (carriage return), but the textbox needs CRLF (carriage return + line feed):

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Imports guinet
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop


Public Class Class1

    Function spellcheck(ByVal txtname As String) As String

        Dim myguixt = New guixt
        Dim mytext = myguixt.GetText("iwtext")

        Dim myWord As Word.Application

        ' MS Word application
        Try
            myWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
        Catch ex As Exception
            Return "Sorry - MS Word not installed"
        End Try

        If myWord Is Nothing Then
            Return "Sorry - MS Word not installed"
        End If

        ' text ok?
        If myWord.CheckSpelling(mytext) Then
            myWord.Quit()
            Return "ok"
        End If


        myWord.WindowState = Word.WdWindowState.wdWindowStateMaximize
        myWord.Caption = "Spell checking"
        myWord.Visible = True


        Dim doc As Word.Document
        doc = myWord.Documents.Add
        doc.Activate()

        doc.Content.Text = mytext

        doc.CheckSpelling()

        myguixt.SetText("iwtext", Replace(doc.Content.Text, vbCr, vbCrLf))

        doc.Close(SaveChanges:=False)

        myWord.Quit()

        Return ""

    End Function

End Class

Sequence of events for the user:

The user writes some text and then pushes the spell check button:

If there are spelling mistakes a word window pops up displaying correction proposals. The user can accept them and the altered text will be transferred to the GuiXT textbox automatically: