CoCreate Modeling code examples: Exchanging text via the Windows clipboard

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---++ <nop>CoCreate Modeling: Exchanging text via the Windows clipboard

We already discussed how Lisp code in <nop>CoCreate Modeling can communicate with
other components in various ways:
   * With Excel via [[MacroHelloExcel][DDE]] (see also the [[FaqDde][DDE FAQ]])
   * With external processes by [[MacroAlarmClock][running them from <nop>CoCreate Modeling]]
   * By [[MacroEnumerateDrives][calling <nop>VBscript code]] (see also
     [[MacroDefaultPrinter][this example]])

And now it's about time to explore yet another dimension of interprocess
communication - using COM objects.

A customer recently asked for help - he needed code which exchanges data with
other applications via the Windows clipboard. There is no officially supported
API for this kind of communication in the Integration Kit. However, that's not really
a problem because access of the clipboard is provided as a service by the
COM object "InternetExplorer.Application" which is available on pretty much any
Windows system. We can use Lisp to ask that COM object to help us with 
clipboard communication.

[[http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/dec04/hey1215.mspx][This article]]
at the Windows Script Center website shows how to use the =InternetExplorer.Application=
object from <nop>VBscript; all we need to do is to translate that example into 
equivalent Lisp code - such as the following.

<pre>
<font color="#0000ff">;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;; Description:  Read text from and write text to the clipboard</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;;               using COM objects</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;;               Requires .NET API license</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;; Author:       Claus Brod  </font>
<font color="#0000ff">;; Language:     Lisp</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;;</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;; (C) Copyright 2007 Claus Brod, all rights reserved</font>
<font color="#0000ff">;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;</font>

<font color="#6a5acd">(</font><font color="#804040"><b>in-package</b></font> :clausbrod.de<font color="#6a5acd">)</font>

<font color="#6a5acd">(</font><font color="#804040"><b>defun</b></font> get-clipboard-object<font color="#6a5acd">()</font>
  <font color="#6a5acd">(</font><font color="#804040"><b>let</b></font> <font color="#6a5acd">((</font>ie <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:create-object <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;InternetExplorer.Application&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">)))</font>
    <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:invoke ie <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;Navigate&quot;</font> <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;about:blank&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">)</font>
    <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:get-property
     <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:get-property
      <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:get-property ie <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;Document&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">)</font>
      <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;Parentwindow&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">)</font>
     <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;ClipboardData&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">)))</font>

<font color="#6a5acd">(</font><font color="#804040"><b>defun</b></font> text-to-clipboard<font color="#6a5acd">(</font>text<font color="#6a5acd">)</font>
  <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:invoke <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>get-clipboard-object<font color="#6a5acd">)</font> <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;SetData&quot;</font> <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;Text&quot;</font> text<font color="#6a5acd">))</font>

<font color="#6a5acd">(</font><font color="#804040"><b>defun</b></font> text-from-clipboard<font color="#6a5acd">()</font>
  <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>.net:invoke <font color="#6a5acd">(</font>get-clipboard-object<font color="#6a5acd">)</font> <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;GetData&quot;</font> <font color="#ff00ff">&quot;Text&quot;</font><font color="#6a5acd">))</font>
</pre>

So how does this code work?

First we need to instantiate and connect to =InternetExplorer.Application=; this is
the first thing which =(get-clipboard-object)= does. "Instantiation" means that an
Internet Explorer process is started in the background (unless an instance of IE is
already running).

Second, we ask the =InternetExplorer.Application= to open a blank document.
This is a prerequisite for the next step. From the document object that we created,
we can ask our way through to the =ClipboardData= object (the full object
path is =Document.Parentwindow.ClipboardData=). This is the job of the
=get-clipboard-object= function.

And finally, the =ClipboardData= object has two member functions which are most useful to us:
=GetData= and =SetData=. =GetData= can be used to retrieve data from the clipboard,
while =SetData= pushes data to the Windows clipboard. Both functions expect us to
specify the format of the data that we expect on the clipboard - in our case "Text".

Legal warning: You need a license to use the COM/.NET API. Please
contact CoCreate support for details.

-- Main.ClausBrod - 11 Apr 2007

%COMMENT{type="below" nonotify="on"}%
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