Launch Microsoft word application inside AIR

Question

Hi Guys,
I am stuck up somewhere not able to find the solution to my
prolbem.Let me explain the problem in detail.
I working on an Adobe AIR application and I need to launch
the microsoft word application to open a particular document which
a user can then modify.
This word document are some defined documents stored some
where in system. The user can then modify the document and can
store that locally in the database.My concern is to launch the
microsoft word document in my AIR application and then let user do
the changes to the document and then i will save the document in my
database as BLOB.
Is there any good way of doing this.I hope Adobe has taken
care of such scenarios and there must be some API's or component in
Flex builder 3 so that i can use that.
I am hoping with the finger crossed and waiting for a good
response from Flex people.
~ Hstrong

Answer 1

I am importing Word documents ( in xml format ) into an Air
application and storing them in a blob in SQLite. When a user
selects a document, I export it to a file and submit a URLRequest
to open it. It launches in IE initially (asking if you want to open
the document), but when IE sees the xml declares it a Word
document, IE opens Word.
To load the file to the database:
//set up and open the database
var sqlConnection:SQLConnection;
sqlConnection = new SQLConnection();
var dbFile:File =
File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("cASM_db.db");
sqlConnection.open(dbFile);
//open the file, read, and close (note reading bytes with
readBytes)
var fileStream : FileStream = new FileStream();
fileStream.open(asmModel.newTemplate, FileMode.READ);
var myBlob:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
fileStream.readBytes(myBlob); //read the object
fileStream.close();
//insert the blob into the database (note use of QUOTE
function to format blob into hex)
myStmt.sqlConnection = sqlConnection;
myStmt.text = "Insert into doctype (" +
"docname_ch, document_bl) " +
"values (?, QUOTE(?))";
myStmt.parameters[0] = asmModel.newTemplate.name;
//docname_ch
myStmt.parameters[1] = myBlob; //template_bl
myStmt.execute();
To unload the file from the database and open:
//identify the file to be populated and delete if already
there (note use of File type and resolvePath function)
curFile = File.applicationStorageDirectory;
curFile = curFile.resolvePath("view/version_" +
asmModel.selectedDocument.VERSION_NU + "_" +
asmModel.selectedDocument.DOCNAME_CH);
//if it is there, delete it
if (curFile.exists)
curFile.deleteFile();
//open the database connection
var sqlConnection:SQLConnection;
sqlConnection = new SQLConnection();
var dbFile:File =
File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("cASM_db.db");
sqlConnection.open(dbFile);
//get the document (now in hex string format)
myStmt.sqlConnection = sqlConnection;
myStmt.clearParameters();
myStmt.text = "Select docname_ch, document_bl " +
"from doctype " +
"where docname_ch = ?";
myStmt.parameters[1] = asmModel.selectedDocument.DOCNAME_CH;
myStmt.execute();
myResult = myStmt.getResult();
//now convert the hex string back to a byteArray (note the
use of a custom toArray function)
var myBlob:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
myBlob = toArray(myResult.data[0].DOCUMENT_BL);
//now write the document to the file
var fileStream:FileStream = new FileStream();
fileStream.open(curFile, FileMode.WRITE);
fileStream.writeBytes(myBlob);
fileStream.close();
//now set up the URLRequest
var request:URLRequest = new
URLRequest("app-storage:/view/version_" +
asmModel.selectedDocument.VERSION_NU + "_" +
asmModel.selectedDocument.DOCNAME_CH);
var docType:String = request.url.substr(request.url.length -
4, 3);
if ((docType != "pdf") ||
(HTMLLoader.pdfCapability == HTMLPDFCapability.STATUS_OK))
navigateToURL(request);
else
Alert.show ("You need to upgrade Adobe Reader.", "Error");
trace("PDF cannot be displayed. Error code:",
HTMLLoader.pdfCapability);
Here's the custom function toArray:
public static function toArray(hex:String):ByteArray {
hex = hex.substring(hex.search("3C3F786D6C"),hex.length - 3);
var a:ByteArray = new ByteArray;
//make sure the string has an even number of characters
if (hex.length&1==1) hex="0"+hex;
//change each hex pair to a single int (ascii char code)
// and place the int in the byte array
for (var i:uint=0;i<hex.length;i+=2) {
a[i/2] = parseInt(hex.substr(i,2),16);
//return the byte array
return a;
Hope this helps!
Steve