I am trying to use Ruby’s WIN32OLE support to drive Mindjet’s
Mindmanager.
Their Object Model reference shows the following method:
*** GetOffset Method ***
Returns the topic’s position-offset relative to its parent.
expression.GetOffset(pxOffset, pyOffset)
expression Required. An expression that returns a Topic object.
pxOffset Required float *.
pyOffset Required float *.
My problem is how to the two floating point output values. See sample
below… Any help would be certainly appreciated. Thanks
require ‘win32ole’
MAX_DEPTH=5
MM=WIN32OLE.new(“Mindmanager.Application”)
MM.visible=true
def randomMap node,label=‘Main’,depth=5
node.text=label
depth.times do |index|
subnode=node.addSubtopic ‘label’
subnode.invoke(‘getOffset’,0.0,0.0) # How to get this to work???
p [:offset,WIN32OLE::ARGV] # Seems to echo parameters
randomMap subnode,’%s %02d’ % [label,index+1],rand(depth)
end
end
node=MM.activeDocument.centralTopic
randomMap node
Generates the following error:
[:offset, [0.0, 0.0]] << mirrors the supplied inputs
G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:13:in invoke': getOffset (WIN32OLERuntimeError) OLE error code:80040200 in MindManager.Application.6 Error: 'this topic is not able to execute the call' HRESULT error code:0x80020009 Exception occurred.from C:demo.rb:13:inrandomMap’
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:11:in times' from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:11:inrandomMap’
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:15:in randomMap' from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:11:intimes’
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:11:in `randomMap’
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:20
Dennis M. asked:
G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:13:in `invoke’: getOffset
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:20
This shouldn’t matter, but I usually write a method invocation like
subnode.invoke(‘getOffset’,0.0,0.0)
as
subnode.GetOffset(0.0, 0.0)
You’re right that WIN32OLE::ARGV is the way to get output parameters.
The
problem seems to be with the method invocation itself failing with an
error.
And it does looks from the stack trace as if the method has actually
been
successfully executed at least once. Have you tried without the loop,
from
IRB, for example?
Cheers,
Dave
In article [email protected],
[email protected] says…
[:offset, [0.0, 0.0]] << mirrors the supplied inputs
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:11:in `randomMap’
from G:/work/mindmanager/demo.rb:20
This shouldn’t matter, but I usually write a method invocation like
subnode.invoke(‘getOffset’,0.0,0.0)
as
subnode.GetOffset(0.0, 0.0)
DM>Yes… tried it both ways… same result 
You’re right that WIN32OLE::ARGV is the way to get output parameters. The
problem seems to be with the method invocation itself failing with an error.
And it does looks from the stack trace as if the method has actually been
successfully executed at least once. Have you tried without the loop, from
IRB, for example?
DM>I found that odd too! Running inside IRB give the same results. Since
the real parameters should be RETURNED… I’m not sure passing IN real
constants as inputs is the answer… but unless I supply two REAL
argments it reports missing required parameters etc.
Dennis M. wrote:
expression.GetOffset(pxOffset, pyOffset)
subnode=node.addSubtopic ‘label’
subnode.invoke(‘getOffset’,0.0,0.0)
p [:offset,WIN32OLE::ARGV]
DM>I found that odd too! Running inside IRB give the same results. Since
the real parameters should be RETURNED… I’m not sure passing IN real
constants as inputs is the answer… but unless I supply two REAL
argments it reports missing required parameters etc.
Where and how does IRB die on this?
require ‘win32ole’
MM=WIN32OLE.new(“Mindmanager.Application”)
MM.visible=true
node = MM.activeDocument.centralTopic
node.text=‘Main’
subnode=node.addSubtopic ‘label’
subnode.getOffset(0.0, 0.0)
p [:offset,WIN32OLE::ARGV]
Cheers,
Dave
In article [email protected],
[email protected] says…
Progress!!
Good news: It returns correct output parameters 
Bad news: It only works once!! But that could my logic error or
Mindjets API problem.
Thanks for speedy+helpful response (from the Win32OLE father himself!!!)
require ‘win32ole’
include WIN32OLE::VARIANT
MAX_DEPTH=5
MM=WIN32OLE.new(“Mindmanager.Application”)
MM.visible=true
def debug node
p [:node,node]
dispid=node.ole_method(‘getOffset’).dispid
node._invoke(dispid, [0.0, 0.0], [VT_R4|VT_BYREF, VT_R4|VT_BYREF])
p [:offset,WIN32OLE::ARGV]
end
def randomMap node,label=‘Main’,depth=5
node.text=label
depth.times do |index|
subnode=node.addSubtopic ‘label’
debug subnode
randomMap subnode,‘%s %02d’ % [label,index+1],rand(depth)
end
end
node=MM.activeDocument.centralTopic
randomMap node
Produces:
c:\work>demo
[:node, #WIN32OLE:0x2845008]
[:offset, [30.0, -20.0]]
[:node, #WIN32OLE:0x2844318]
C:/Work/demo.rb:14:in _invoke': _invoke (WIN32OLERuntimeError) OLE error code:80040200 in MindManager.Application.6 Error: 'this topic is not able to execute the call' HRESULT error code:0x80020009 Exception occurred from C:/Work/demo.rb:14:in debug’
from C:/Work/demo.rb:22:in randomMap' from C:/Work/demo.rb:20:in times’
from C:/Work/demo.rb:20:in randomMap' from C:/Work/demo.rb:23:in randomMap’
from C:/Work/demo.rb:20:in times' from C:/Work/demo.rb:20:in randomMap’
from C:/Work/demo.rb:28
Hello,
In message “Win32OLE output parameter access??”
on 06/03/29, Dennis M. [email protected] writes:
subnode.invoke('getOffset',0.0,0.0) # How to get this to work???
Try
include WIN32OLE::VARIANT
…
dispid = subnode.ole_method(‘getOffset’).dispid
subnode._invoke(dispid, [0.0, 0.0], [VT_R4|VT_BYREF, VT_R4|VT_BYREF])
or
dispid = subnode.ole_method(‘getOffset’).dispid
subnode._invoke(dispid, [0.0, 0.0], [VT_R8|VT_BYREF, VT_R8|VT_BYREF])
Regards,
Masaki S.