Scripting Guide - SAS

494 Extending JMP Chapter 14
OLE Automation
through Visual Basic and using Visual C++ with MFC. It also contains details for the methods and
properties that JMP exposes to automation clients like Visual Basic and Visual C++
The JMP\10\Samples\Automation folder contains several example Visual Basic .Net, Visual C# .Net, and
Visual C++ .Net programs that automate features in JMP.
Automating JMP through Visual Basic
Starting a JMP Application
The first step in automating JMP is to start it up. However, it’s important to look at the resources available
to help you with the JMP methods and properties. JMP provides a type library that allows automation
controllers like Visual Basic (VB) to display a list of the methods and properties that JMP exposes, along
with parameters that the methods require. This library is called JMP.TLB.
There are two steps to make the JMP type library available to VB.
1. Select Project > References in VB. A list of applications that are known to VB appears. If JMP is not
in that list, select Browse. A file window asks you to locate a .tlb (Type library) file. Find the icon for
the JMP type library in the JMP directory. Select this library and click OK.
2. Open the object browser by selecting View > Object Browser in VB. Select JMP from the drop down
list box.
Now you can see the JMP automation classes and constants. You can now select a class, and the methods
available to that class appear in the right list box for the object browser. If you select a method, a short helper
string appears at the bottom of the window. This string lists the parameters for the method. Constants are
used when methods require a restricted set of parameters, typically denoting a specific action.
Now that you have access to the type library information, write the necessary code to instantiate JMP. This
is done with CreateObject. In global declarations for the VB project, create a variable of type
JMP.Application. This is done as:
Dim MyJMP As JMP.Application
Now dimension some other variables. Good examples are DataTable, Distrib, Oneway, and JMPDoc.
These are specified with JMP.DataTable, JMP.Distribution, JMP.Oneway, and JMP.Document
respectively.
To create a JMP session, make it visible, and load a data table, add the following code to your VB script.
Dim JMPDoc As JMP.Document
Set MyJMP = CreateObject("JMP.Application")
MyJMP.Visible = True
Set JMPDoc = MyJMP.OpenDocument("C:\Program Files\SAS\JMP\10\Samples\Data\Big
Class.jmp")
The Dim statement indicates the type of variable. This declaration should go in the general declarations
section of your VB project, though. If you do not do this, the JMP objects are destroyed when the variable
goes out of scope at the end of the procedure.