How to access indesign cs3 document through VC++

Question

Hello
i am new to VC++, i need to communiacte Indesign CS3 through VC++, for this what can i do? inorder to access indesign docuemnts,
i also need to access a Third party API for CS3 through VC++, for the two puproses, i dont have any idea, so
kindly help me
with regards,
ram

Answer 1

Hi ram<br /><br />As Olav has pointed out, you need to decide whether to use COM or SDK.<br /><br />SDK is hard core - and I really mean HARD CORE. I consider myself to be a reasonably good VC++ programmer, but when I tried to develop an InDesign plug-in using SDK and VC++ I was completely lost.<br /><br />However it is possible to use VC++ to control InDesign via the COM object.<br /><br />Here is what you should do:<br /><br />1) Make a new VC++ project (MFC, MFC Application)<br />2) In Wizard dialog select Dialog Based and leave everything else unchanged (simply press Next)<br />3) You now have a simple empty dialog with 2 buttons<br />4) Double-click the OK button<br />5) Insert the following code (before OnOK()):<br /><br />// COM support required for this<br />//  Call CoInitialize() to initialize the COM library on the current thread<br />if(::CoInitialize(NULL) != S_OK) return;<br /><br />// Create instance of InDesign Application<br />InDesign::_ApplicationPtr app;<br />// Use the appropriate version here<br />//  This string will be used to search the registry for the application<br />//  associated with it and the same is invoked. <br />//  If you have different builds of the same version and you want to work<br />//  with a specific build, call CreateProcess() for that build and then<br />//  call CreateInstance() so that the currently running instance is returned.<br />app.CreateInstance(L"InDesign.Application.CS3");<br /><br />// Open existing document<br />InDesign::DocumentPtr doc = app->Open("C:\\InDesign\\myDocument.indd", true);<br />InDesign::PagePtr page = doc->Pages->FirstItem();<br />InDesign::TextFramePtr textFrame = doc->TextFrames->FirstItem();<br />textFrame->Contents = "Hello world";<br /><br />6) Go to the start of the file<br />7) Insert the following code before // CAboutDlg dialog used for App About<br /><br />// Required for calling COM initialization methods<br />#include <objbase.h><br /><br />// Import InDesign's Type Library<br />#import "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 5.0\Scripting Support\5.0\Resources for Visual Basic.tlb"<br /><br />8} Build and run the project (F5). When you press OK, InDesign should launch, open your document, find the first page, find the first TextFrame and replace the text (contents) with "Hello world"<br /><br />How to get in contact with your third-party API is a completely different ball game (not in the scope of this forum), but at least you now have a VC++ project with header files etc.<br /><br />If your third-party API is indeed an InDesign plug-in, I totally agree with Olav that you have to direct your questions to the SDK forum.<br /><br />Best regards,<br />Bo