HP Intelligent Management Center Standard Software Platform - Manual (Page 415)

An OLE container application is one that can contain and process OLE
objects created in other applications (such as Paint or Excel). Crystal
Reports is a container application.
• Container Document
A container document is a document that was created using the container
application and that contains one or more OLE objects.
• OLE Server Application
An OLE server application is an application that allows its documents to
be inserted into an OLE container document as OLE objects. Microsoft
Word and Excel are examples of applications that are both OLE servers
and OLE containers. That is, they can both create new OLE objects and
they can contain OLE objects created elsewhere.
• Server Document
The server document is a file created in the server application that stores
the original OLE object.
Types of OLE objects
• Static object
A static OLE object is a picture of an object that can be displayed and
printed, but not edited in place. It does not have a connection to a server
application. There are two kinds of static objects: static bitmaps and static
metafiles.
• Embedded object
An embedded object contains a representation of the object, as well as
information that defines the content. It does not have a connection to the
original object in the server document. As a general rule, use embedded
objects when you need to edit the object independently of the original
server document.
• Linked object
A linked object contains a representation of the data and a link to the file
where it originated. As a general rule, use linked objects when the data
Crystal Reports 2008 SP3 User's Guide 415
16 OLE
OLE overview