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What's so special about the recently released Microsoft Office Developer's Kit (ODK) anyway? What's its raison d'ątre, its sine qua non-just what makes it so incroyable?
Beyond the ability to evoke French and Latin utterances, the ODK provides you with tools and reference materials designed to develop custom applications from the large number of existing software components available in Microsoft Office 4.3, Professional Edition.
In Office, developers have three capabilities they've never had before in one place-a common programming language (Visual Basic for Applications); an object model (OLE 2.0); and more than 400 reusable objects or software components.
These object linking and embedding (OLE) objects, available throughout the Office applications, are the building blocks you can use to create your own custom applications. The hundreds of OLE Automation objects in Office let you stand on the shoulders of those who have already done a lot of your work.
If you already have Office, which has Visual Basic for Applications built into Microsoft Excel, why do you need the ODK? After all, you could possibly get by using the documentation for Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Excel.
The real advantage of the ODK is its scope. The ODK looks at Office as a whole and shows you how the functionality from a variety of applications fits together.
The ODK includes a stand-alone OLE 2.0 Object Browser that offers-without a host application-a complete view of all the objects, methods, and properties in Office across all the applications in Office, as well as all other Windows-based applications that support OLE Automation. This increases the speed with which you can use OLE Automation to assemble your applications in any construction site you choose.
The kit also contains two new books, an Object Reference Chart, a set of 11 sample applications, and an Electronic Forms Designer. (See the accompanying "Office Developer's Kit Contents" table.)
The books, Designing Integrated Solutions with Microsoft Office and Programming Integrated Solutions with Microsoft Office-along with the Object Browser and Chart-acquaint you with the various objects available, while the sample applications suggest some concrete ways these objects can fit together.
Take the Northwind Management System sample from the ODK, for example. This application provides a top-down view of the Northwind Traders business data so that employees can track the important information they need for making decisions. The data resides in a Microsoft Access database and is shared with a Microsoft Excel workbook. News articles are displayed using an OLE 2.0 object from Microsoft Word. The Northwind Traders sample application displays and manipulates this data using OLE 2.0 objects and code that reside in a Visual Basic application.
Creating the Northwind Management System on the Office development platform and reusing existing functionality is obviously far more efficient than the daunting task of recreating the functionality already provided by these Office applications.
How to get the ODK? As a member of the Developer Network, you have a lot of it already in the April Development Library-and the rest will be there by summertime in the July 1994 Development Library. (See the accompanying table for complete information.) If you're not a member of the Developer Network, see The Right Numbers on page 16 to learn how you can join.
The CD-ROM-based ODK also comes free in Visual Basic 3.0, Professional Edition. Current users of Visual Basic 3.0, Professional Edition can get the kit at reduced pricing. It is also available as a stand-alone product at retail pricing through either through resellers.
Section Item/Description Appears on MSDN
Office Developer's Kit Introduction Introduction to the Office Developer's Kit July 1994
Object Browser This stand-alone executable lists procedures,
objects, methods, and properties available for
use in a specified type library. July 1994
Microsoft Object Model Reference
Charts This series of online charts shows Microsoft
Excel objects, data access objects, and
Microsoft Project objects April 1994
Designing Integrated Solutions with
Microsoft Office This book serves as a road map to design
issues when using Microsoft Office to build
solutions. April 1994
Programming Integrated Solutions with
Microsoft Office This book is a complete guide to the nuts
and bolts of programming with Office and
a reference guide to the entire collection
of Office objects. April 1994
Sample Applications 11 Applications complete with source code,
including such hot numbers as the Northwind
Management System, an integrated solution
using OLE 2.0 and Microsoft Office; Encore,
a forecasting tool that uses OLE 2.0 and
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft
Project; Help Desk, an application that
tracks, records and resolves customer
service calls, and also demonstrates OLE
2.0 functionality between Visual Basic 3.0
and Microsoft Excel; and Invoice, an
application that demonstrates OLE 2.0
functionality between Visual Basic 3.0
and Microsoft Word 6.0 for printing invoices. July 1994
Microsoft Jet 2.0/Visual Basic 3.0
Compatibility Layer A set of files, including a setup file, that
gives Visual Basic 3.0 the capability of
accessing the new jet file format in
Microsoft Access 2.0 July 1994
Microsoft Access 2.0 User's Guide, Building Applications April 1994
Microsoft Access 2.0 Language Reference, Advanced Topics July 1994
Microsoft Electronic Forms Designer version 1.0 July 1994
Microsoft Electronic Forms Designer Developer's Guide April 1994
Microsoft Excel 5.0 Microsoft Excel User's Guide, Microsoft Query
User's Guide, and Microsoft Excel Developer's
Kit (for developers proficient in C or
AppleScript) July 1994
Microsoft Excel 5.0 Visual Basic User's Guide and Visual Basic
for Applications Reference April 1994
Microsoft Mail 3.2 Technical Reference, Directory
Synchronization with Foreign Mail Systems,
File Format API for Gateways and Applications,
Schedule+ Libraries, Microsoft Workgroup
Templates, Microsoft Workgroup Templates
Developer's Handbook April 1994
Microsoft Mail 3.2 Administrator's Guide, User's Guide: Windows
and Presentation Manager, Common Messaging
Calls files, User's Guide: Workstation
Software for MS-DOS July 1994
Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 User's Guide July 1994
Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0,
Professional Edition Visual Basic Control Development
Guide, Crystal Reports for Visual Basic,
Custom Control Reference, Data Access Guide,
Help Compiler Guide, Language Reference,
Programmer's Guide April 1994
Microsoft Word 6.0 Developer's Kit documentation April 1994
Microsoft Word 6.0 User's Guide, Developer's Kit files,
Quick Results July 1994
The Office Developer's Kit CD includes a compatibility layer that allows Visual Basic 3.0-based applications to take advantage of new performance, connectivity, and database functionality in the new Microsoft Jet 2.0 database engine.
Developers can greatly increase the performance of queries involving multiple indexes by using this compatibility layer and the new Microsoft Jet 2.0 dynamic-link library in Microsoft Access 2.0.
The compatibility layer, also available in the Microsoft Access 2.0 Developer's Kit, offers the following benefits:
Diane Stielstra is a senior editor in Microsoft's Developer Network.
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