Accessing application and document objects (ArcObjects .NET 10.8 SDK)

Summary

One of the first tasks when customizing an ArcGIS Desktop application is to access the application or document object. Together, these objects act as the central point of entry to other objects in the ArcGIS system. This topic shows common ways of getting a reference to the application object in your .NET custom components.

In this topic

About accessing application and document objects
Getting a reference to the application object

About accessing application and document objects

The application framework provides ways to customize and extend the user interface (UI) for ArcGIS Desktop applications. You can access the application object with the methods in the following table:

Implementation	Reference	Method and parameter
Command, Tool, and ToolControl	IApplication	ICommand.OnCreate() hook parameter
MultiItem command	IApplication	IMultiItem.OnPopup() hook parameter
Extension	IApplication	IExtension.Startup() initializationData parameter
Dockable window	IApplication	IDockableWindowDef.OnCreate() hook parameter

With certain customizations, you get a document object directly. In these cases, you can access the application object by casting the document object to IDocument and accessing the parent property. See the following table:

Implementation	Reference	Method and parameter
Contents View (ArcMap)	IMxDocument	IContentsView.Activate() document parameter
Contents View (ArcScene)	ISxDocument	ISxContentsView.Activate() document parameter
Contents View (ArcGlobe)	IDocument	IContentsView2.BasicActivate() document parameter

See the following code example:

[C#]

//ArcMap.
IMxDocument mapDocument=parameter;
IDocument document=mapDocument as IDocument;
IApplication application=document.Parent;

[VB.NET]

'ArcMap.
Dim mapDocument As IMxDocument=parameter
Dim document As IDocument=CType(mapDocument, IDocument)
Dim application As IApplication=document.Parent

Getting a reference to the application object

You can also get a reference to the application object indirectly from other custom component implementations. For example, if you write an Editor extension, IExtension.Startup gives you a reference to the Editor object, then you can use the IEditor.Parent property to get to the IApplication object.

As a last resort, if you can't get a reference to the application object in your code, you can instantiate a new AppRef object. Once you get the application object, you can access the current document and templates, status bar, selected tool, and application extensions.

To programmatically find an application extension, use the IApplication.FindExtensionByCLSID method. This method takes the unique identifier (UID) of the extension as the input parameter. A list of the Esri extension UIDs is provided in the Help system.

Development licensing	Deployment licensing
ArcGIS Desktop Basic	ArcGIS Desktop Basic
ArcGIS Desktop Standard	ArcGIS Desktop Standard
ArcGIS Desktop Advanced	ArcGIS Desktop Advanced