11.1.1 Client Application Issues

The client application tester must understand how objects are created. Each object has presentation data associated with it. This presentation data controls the appearance of the server application's picture in the client application. You should be aware of the types of presentation data required by the application. The client application determines at the time the object was created, how it will draw the object—by using information from the server application—or by letting the client DLL draw it. The object's location in the client document is also determined when the object is created.

Some objects have a presentation for screen display and a presentation for a specific printer device. If the client application supports printer device display, also known as WYSIWYG, it must supply the server application the appropriate printer information.

Once created, there are many actions that can be done with an object in a client application. These actions can occur asynchronously and you should know how the application handles asynchronous processing.

Editing actions may involve starting one or more additional applications, depending on the variety of objects contained within the document. Therefore, the client application needs to alert the user whenever an action may affect the state of the currently opened document. If there is an OLE error, the client application should display a message box describing the error and/or a way to recover.

The client application, in interacting with other applications, may need to open, close, read, and save files—both with and without OLE objects. Many applications are able to read files created by other applications, however, not all applications can work properly with files containing OLE objects.