JOOPS

Since 1988, JOOPS for Information Technology has developed solutions in various fields for its customers. Since 2004, their business focus has been on the BPM-/Workflow-System OfficeTalk as a central solution for managing and optimizing business processes. The system was developed by JOOPS and supports companies in all industries, ranging from tax firms over facility management to production companies and property managers. OfficeTalk is used for traditional enterprise customers as an enterprise solution, and IT systems companies as an OEM product.

Using Cincom Smalltalk for OfficeTalk allowed us to create a powerful product for process, workflow and process control. …With the powerful technology and the comprehensive toolset of Cincom Smalltalk, we can develop innovative solutions faster and easier than with comparable platforms from other manufacturers. The new solutions are also seamlessly integrated—so that both the acquisition and integration costs of OfficeTalk are lower by half than competitive products.
Josef Springer, Director of JOOPS Information Technology Ltd.

OfficeTalk/MSP

OfficeTalk/MSP is a Business-Process-Management Suite (BPMS: BPM and Workflow) for managing and controlling a company’s business processes. It can be used on different platforms, and the amount of usable workstations supported by OfficeTalk/MSP depends on the database being used. OfficeTalk/MSP is developed with modern technologies and uses component architectures. OfficeTalk/MSP is based on Cincom® VisualWorks®.

SmallCOM/X

In addition to OfficeTalk/MSP, JOOPS has also developed SmallCOM/X. SmallCOM/X is a Win32 tool that generates VisualWorks-Smalltalk classes for ActiveX (OCX) components from COM type libraries.

Why Was SmallCOM/X Developed?

In the Microsoft world, many useful ActiveX (OCX) components exist. The normal COM protocol, which is also supported by SmallCOM, is not enough to handle such ActiveX/OCX components, because these parts are visual components and the protocol must be enhanced with the Microsoft ActiveX protocol. This is where SmallCOM/X fits in. It extents SmallCOM with the handling of ActiveX/OCX components, allowing it to be used as normal widgets.

What Does SmallCOM/X Generate?

In addition to SmallCOM, SmallCOM/X generates the classes and code to handle the component as a normal widget and to use this widget in the UIPainter:

Die Spec-, View- und Controller classes.
The integration into the UIPainter as a widget.
The extensions to the UIBuilder.
The protocol for using the ActiveX/OCX-component as a COM component.

With these generated artifacts (classes and methods), the ActiveX/OCX-component can be used like a normal widget.

What are the Requirements of SmallCOM/X?

Because SmallCOM/X is a Win32 tool, you need one of the Windows platforms (Windows 95/98/NT/2000 or XP). The requirements of SmallCOM are expected as well. (See the specification for SmallCOM.)

How Do You Use SmallCOM/X?

First you select an ActiveX/OCX-type library. This library is usually registered in the Windows registry, but it could also be a .tlb-, .olb-, .dll or .exe-file. After loading the library, all found types are shown (Enums, Interfaces and CoClasses). Additionally, the generated Spec-, View- und controller classes are shown. For each type, a tab-view with the class and code to be generated is displayed. This code can be modified manually. Selected parts or all of the parts can be filed in to VisualWorks image with the SmallTalkCommander as a COM server. After filed in, you can place an ActiveX/OCX widget with the newly created ActiveX/OCX widget button into a canvas and use the ActiveX/OCX widget like a normal widget.