1. Using Multi-Instrument as an Automation Server

ActiveX is the general name for a set of Microsoft technologies that allows you to reuse code and link individual programs together to suit your computing needs. Based on COM (Component Object Model) technologies, ActiveX is an extension of a previous technology called OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). Each program does not need to regenerate components, but rather, reuse components to give you the power to combine applications together. ActiveX Automation is a subset of the Microsoft’s ActiveX technologies. ActiveX Automation applications interact in a Client/Server model, where the Automation Server exposes objects which can be controlled by the Automation Client (also known as the Automation Controller).

Multi-Instrument offers support for ActiveX Automation as a server, i.e. ActiveX Automation Server (also known as OLE Automation Server, or simply Automation Server). An Automation Client program can control and share the data with the Multi-Instrument Automation Server through the interfaces that the Multi-Instrument Automation Server exposes. In this way, Multi-Instrument can be seamlessly integrated into other applications as a reusable binary component.

In the following chapters, the Multi-Instrument Automation Server Interfaces will be described and the sample Automation Client programs in Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0 will be provided.

2. Multi-Instrument Automation Server Interface Specifications

2.1 ShowWindow

The ShowWindow function sets the specified window's show state.

Window ID. It specifies which window to operate.

0: Mainframe

1: Oscilloscope

2: Spectrum Analyzer

3: Multimeter

4: Generator