You can design ATEasy applications so that they use components of other Windows applications or stand-alone components that support Automation. Automation (formerly known as OLE Automation) makes it possible for one application to manipulate objects implemented in another application, or to "expose" objects so they can be manipulated. For example, an ATEasy application could use:
A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to perform a calculation
The Internet Explorer layout engine to browse an intranet
An instance of Microsoft Word to format log data
If you want to use a software component with an ATEasy application, you can provide your ATEasy application with information about the properties, methods, and events of that component at design time. Type libraries provide ATEasy with information about components so that they can be used in ATEasy applications.
To use a type library in ATEasy, you insert it under your application's Libraries submodule. After adding the type library to a module, you can see the classes of all objects that the type library defines, including their properties, methods, and events. If the type library contains controls, modules, types, or variables, you also see these listed under the newly inserted type library.