Component Object Model (COM) is a Microsoft® centric interface standard for software componentry. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in programming languages that support COM. The term COM is often used in the software development industry as an umbrella term that encompasses OLE, OLE Automation, ActiveX® , COM+ and DCOM.
Origin now functions as an automation server for client applications, such as Microsoft® Excel®, Microsoft® Visual Basic®, and National Instruments™ LabVIEW™, that support COM programming.
Data can be passed to Origin from the client application, graphed, analyzed, and the result exported or brought back into your application without ever seeing Origin. A typical client application may involve some, or many, of the following steps:
- Launching the Origin application.
- Opening a previously customized Origin project or preparing the default project (by opening Analysis Templates™, workbooks, matrices, graphs, etc.) to receive data from the client application.
- Sending data (collected from hardware) to Origin workbooks and matrices.
- Sending commands to Origin to process the data or have Origin update result columns using the recalculate analysis feature.
- Getting results back from Origin worksheets and matrices.
- Getting images of graphs and layout pages back from Origin.
- Saving the Origin project.
- Closing the Origin application.
For example, you can program Excel to call Origin to perform data analysis, such as FFT, smoothing, interpolation or curve fitting and then return the results, including an Origin graph, to your workbook.
Once the client closes the connection, the user could later launch Origin and just re-open the saved project for further processing.
A network (server/client) installation of Origin is ideal for taking advantage
of this feature. Origin gets installed as a server on one computer and as a
client on multiple computers, using a FlexLM license manager. Then, any technician
who uses a client machine can be provided with a simple interface, such as an
Excel worksheet or in-house Visual Basic application, by the company. These
simple interfaces can then use the Origin client installation on their local
machine to call the Origin server. In doing so, the technician does not have
to learn how to use Origin itself, since all required controls would be on the
customized interface.
OriginPro provides additional methods to handle multiple client applications.
Examples of Origin's Automation Server Support
Use Microsoft® Excel as a client application.
Use Microsoft® Visual Basic as a client application.
Use The Mathworks MATLAB® as a client application.
Use National Instruments™ LabVIEW™ as a client application.
Further details and More Examples
For details on the automation server classes and enumerations provided by Origin and more examples, please visit this wiki page.