ComObjConnect() [AHK_L 53+]

Connects a COM object's event sources to functions with a given prefix.

ComObjConnect(ComObject , PrefixOrSink)

Parameters

ComObject

An object which raises events.

If the object does not support the IConnectionPointContainer interface or type information about the object's class cannot be retrieved, an error message is shown. This can be suppressed or handled with ComObjError() or try/catch.

[v1.1.22+]: The IProvideClassInfo interface is used to retrieve type information about the object's class if the object supports it. Otherwise, ComObjConnect attempts to retrieve type information via the object's IDispatch interface, which may be unreliable.

PrefixOrSink

If blank or omitted, the object is "disconnected"; that is, the script will no longer receive notification of its events. Otherwise, specify a string to prefix to the event name to determine which function to call when an event occurs, or in [v1.1.01+] an event sink object defining a method for each event to be handled.

Usage

To make effective use of ComObjConnect, you must first write functions in the script to handle any events of interest. Such functions, or "event-handlers," have the following structure:

PrefixEventName([Params..., ComObject])
{
    ... event-handling code ...
    return ReturnValue
}

Prefix should be the same as the PrefixOrSink parameter if it is a string; otherwise, it should be omitted. EventName should be replaced with the name of whatever event the function should handle.

Params corresponds to whatever parameters the event has. If the event has no parameters, Params should be omitted entirely. ComObject is optional, and can only be used if the correct number of Params are defined; it contains a reference to the original wrapper object which was passed to ComObjConnect. "ComObject" should be replaced with a name more meaningful in the context of your script.

Note that event handlers may have return values. To return a COM-specific type of value, use ComObject(). For example, return ComObject(0,0) returns a variant of type VT_EMPTY, which is equivalent to returning undefined (or not returning) from a JavaScript function.

Call ComObjConnect(yourObject, "Prefix") to enable event-handling.

Call ComObjConnect(yourObject) to disconnect the object (stop handling events).

If the number of parameters is not known, a variadic function can be used.

Event Sink [v1.1.01+]

If PrefixOrSink is an object, whenever an event is raised, the corresponding method of that object is called. Although the object can be constructed dynamically, it is more typical for PrefixOrSink to refer to a class or an instance of a class. In that case, methods are defined as shown above, but without Prefix.

As with any call to a method, the method's (normally hidden) this parameter contains a reference to the object through which the method was called; i.e. the event sink object, not the COM object. This can be used to provide context to the event handlers, or share values between them.

To catch all events without defining a method for each one, define a __Call meta-function.

ComObject retains a reference to PrefixOrSink, so it cannot be deleted before the object is disconnected.

[v1.1.36.02+]: ComObject releases its reference to PrefixOrSink automatically if the COM object releases the connection. For example, Internet Explorer does this when it exits. If the script does not retain its own reference to PrefixOrSink, it can use __Delete to detect when this occurs. If the object is hosted by a remote process and the process terminates unexpectedly, it may take several minutes for the system to release the connection.

Remarks

The script must retain a reference to ComObject, otherwise it would be freed automatically and would disconnect from its COM object, preventing any further events from being detected. There is no standard way to detect when the connection is no longer required, so the script must disconnect manually by calling ComObjConnect.

The #Persistent directive may be needed to keep the script running while it is listening for events.

On failure, the function may throw an exception, exit the script or simply return, depending on the current ComObjError() setting and other factors.

ComObjCreate(), ComObjGet(), ComObjActive(), ComObjError(), WScript.ConnectObject (Microsoft Docs)

Examples

Launches an instance of Internet Explorer and connects events to corresponding script functions with the prefix "IE_". For details about the COM object and DocumentComplete event used below, see InternetExplorer object (Microsoft Docs).

ie := ComObjCreate("InternetExplorer.Application")

; Connects events to corresponding script functions with the prefix "IE_".
ComObjConnect(ie, "IE_")

ie.Visible := true  ; This is known to work incorrectly on IE7.
ie.Navigate("https://www.autohotkey.com/")
#Persistent

IE_DocumentComplete(ieEventParam, url, ieFinalParam) {
    global ie
    if (ie != ieEventParam)
        s .= "First parameter is a new wrapper object.`n"
    if (ie == ieFinalParam)
        s .= "Final parameter is the original wrapper object.`n"
    if ((disp1:=ComObjUnwrap(ieEventParam)) == (disp2:=ComObjUnwrap(ieFinalParam)))
        s .= "Both wrapper objects refer to the same IDispatch instance.`n"
    ObjRelease(disp1), ObjRelease(disp2)
    MsgBox % s . "Finished loading " ie.Document.title " @ " url
    ie.Quit()
    ExitApp
}