origin-node

Classes for controlling OriginLab instances using OLE Automation

The goal

This project aims to make functionality of OriginLab OLE objects (as described in https://www.originlab.com/doc/COM/Classes) usable directly from Node JS, allowing editing most objects, manipuating data and re-exporting of layers. When using other scientific software as well, this allows transparent updates in one application whenever a file is changed in another application.

How

Under the hood, OLE objects are created using the winax (node-activex) library and wrapped using the OLEContainer class, which most other classes inherit from. They then implement the class functionality using async functions and add further helpful methods, e.g. for finding worksheets by long name.

Type conversion will be handled by winax most of the time; unless otherwise stated, it should be fine.

Getting started

The main entry point for manipulating OriginLab is the Application class, or more importantly, the inheriting classes ApplicationSI (using a running OriginLab instance) and ApplicationCOMSI (using a newly created instance).

Following code illustrates usage for searching a worksheet by LongName and updating the formula for the second column

import {ApplicationSI} from "origin-node";

... in an async context:

// Connects to an existing OriginLab session
let app = new ApplicationSI();

let worksheet = await App.FindWorksheetByLongname("r-01_FeW_Si-1_4MeV#1.dat");
if (worksheet) {
    console.log("Worksheet found!");
    await worksheet.Execute('csetvalue col:=2 formula:="5,34848*A+13,03793";');
}

Getters & Setters

To keep the wrappers independent of the underlying OLE library, the decision was made to use async functions as consistently as possible.

However, while async getters (a.k.a. await worksheet.LongName) are possible in JavaScript, there is no such syntax for async setters. Therefore, separate methods for setters are added using ${propertyName}Set as naming scheme.

Example usage: await Worksheet.${propertyName}Set (newValue).

Status

Certain array-like structures will not be implemented and are skipped from the following list (e.g. WorksheetPages).

Partly implemented

• Application
• ApplicationCOMSI
• ApplicationSI
• DataObject
• DataObjectBase
• DataPlot
• Datasheet
• Column
• GraphLayer
• GraphPage
• LayoutPage
• Layer
• MatrixPage
• OriginBase (missing Parent)
• TreeNode
• Worksheet
• WorksheetPage
• Page
• PageBase

Pending

• CollectionsBase
• DataRange
• ExternalDialogPage
• Folder
• MatrixObject
• MatrixSheet
• Note
• ProjectInfo

Completed

• OriginObject
• TreeNode