InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
May 31, 1999
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In theory, APC makes it possible to host VBA in an application written in C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, or even VBA. But the developers' kit is heavily oriented toward C++ programmers creating MFC applications. Except for the APC interface technical specifications, all of the documentation is written for C++ programmers. The only platform-specific documentation and the solitary sample application are written for MFC developers.
The developers' kit includes MFC and C++ helper classes and header files for using the APC. It also includes both debug and release versions of the VBA libraries and HTML help-authoring tools to integrate custom help files with the distributable VBA help. Also included is an installer API for distributing VBA host applications.
Because the industry is making a slow transition to the new HTML Windows help-file format, the developers' kit includes support for the old WinHelp and new HTML formats. Companies can use either format to create a dynamic help system with contents that change based on the help files installed on a user's system. This allows seamless integration between custom help files and the VBA help.
The developers' kit includes basic technical documentation about the VBA tools and APIs with a single MFC sample integration application. Even though a single sample isn't nearly enough, it's implemented in phases, demonstrating the steps needed to convert an application without scripting to full VBA integration.
However, documentation is meager for such a complex product. It omits too much information about important concepts, such as designing the mandatory object model in the host application.
VBA 6.0 and the software developers' kit aren't finished works. There are problems with multithreading support in VBA applications running on machines with multiple processors. Showing a modeless form in a multithreaded project can result in fatal errors. The debug version of the VBA binaries doesn't coexist with Office 2000. And even though Visual Basic applications can integrate VBA, doing so is nearly impossible using the current documentation.
Mystic River and Summit Software will continue to provide the first line of technical support for VBA integration. They will continue to offer their own white papers, development toolkits, and other resources to support their clients.
Mystic River has announced the release of its Resource Kit for VBA 6.0. The kit includes samples and detailed instructions for integrating VBA, customer demos, help with migrating from VBA 5.0, and code samples.
Because licensing VBA is still a significant financial and technological commitment to Microsoft technologies, licensees have access to Microsoft's developer teams and other resources. The licensing agents act as advocates for licensees, coordinating co-marketing activities, meetings with Microsoft personnel, and whatever else it takes to improve the number of successful integration projects.
Microsoft has also created a Partners Web Site for VBA licensees, but the company doesn't provide much in the way of direct technical support. The site is meant as an exchange of information, mainly for marketing VBA applications and building a development community around VBA.
Simplifying Integration
While these are steps in the right direction, they're only the start of an effort to make VBA attractive to more software developers and business IT departments. The developers' kit documentation clearly shows an intent to make VBA integration easier for Visual Basic developers, although it doesn't yet include any Visual Basic sample code or tools.
Embedding VBA makes sense only when a widely distributed application must be customizable by developers who don't have access to the application's source code. Although dramatically improved in version 6.0, VBA remains expensive to license and difficult to integrate. But Microsoft is making the right moves to make VBA more widely available in a wide variety of applications.
Don Kiely is a director of Information Insights, a software consulting firm in Fairbanks, Alaska. He can be reached at donkiely@computer.org.
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