Adding Slide to Powerpoint

~~David~~ has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Sorry folks, I really have no idea what I am doing here, but this is my goal. I am building a powerpoint presentation that will be a compilation of various presentations. Right now I am having trouble adding the slides from the second file to the first file. The following code returns this error: Win32::OLE(0.1502) error 0x80048240 in METHOD/PROPERTYGET "Slides" at powerpoint_create_withEDM.pl line 256 Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call at powerpoint_create_withEDM.pl line 259.

sub addMyFile{
    my $file = shift;  #this is the filename of the file i am adding
    my $fullpath = "$edmdir\\$file";  #full filename with path
    my $pptadd = Win32::OLE->new( 'PowerPoint.Application', 'Quit' )or
+ die "Can't create PowerPoint OLE: $!\n";
        $pptadd->{Visible} = 1;
    my $addpres = $pptadd->Presentations->Open( $fullpath ) or die "Ca
+n't open PowerPoint file '$fullpath': $!\n";  # this is the second pr
+esentation....  i need to add it to the first one which has variable 
+$pres
 
    my @slides;
    my $j = 1;
    my $slide;
    
    while ($addpres->Slides($j)){$slides[$j] = $addpres->Slides($j);$j
+++};  #this goes one too many, but I am working on it.

    my $k = 1;
    foreach $slide (@slides){ $pres -> Slides($slideIndex) = $slides[$
+k]; $slideIndex++; $k++};
        
}
[download]

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

~~David~~

Comment on Adding Slide to Powerpoint Download Code

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Re: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by traveler (Parson) on Feb 16, 2007 at 22:10 UTC
Your `foreach $slide (@slides){ $pres -> Slides($slideIndex) = $slides[$k]; +$slideIndex++; $k++};` [download] Needs to be `foreach $slide (@slides){ $pres -> Slides->Add($slideIndex,$slides[$k] +->Layout) = $slides[$k]; $slideIndex++; $k++};` [download] Untested, but it is close to an existing proggie I have. HTH	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by ~~David~~ (Hermit) on Feb 16, 2007 at 23:07 UTC
Thanks for your suggestions, but I am still having problems. I see what you were trying to accomplish, so it has given me a better starting point. I updated the code, but it still fails with the same error. Do you know if I need to switch between active presentations in order to copy, paste, etc... `sub addMyFile{ my $file = shift; my $fullpath = "$edmdir\\$file"; my $addpres = $ppt->Presentations->Open( $fullpath ) or die "Can't + open PowerPoint file '$fullpath': $!\n"; my $j = 1; my $slide; my $newslide; while ($j < 10){ # this is hard coded while i figure out the bug +s, but it will be length of the file $newslide = $pres -> Slides->Add($slideIndex,$addpres->Slides( +$j)->Layout); $newslide = $addpres->Slides($j); $j++; $slideIndex++; } };` [download] ~~David~~	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by traveler (Parson) on Feb 16, 2007 at 23:43 UTC
You do not need to switch presentations: using the proper var does that. Your old logic (with my changes) was better. Exactly what line gave the error on my version? Oh, and print out $k and $slideindex to be sure they are right and to figure when the error occurs.	[reply]
Re^4: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by ~~David~~ (Hermit) on Feb 17, 2007 at 00:00 UTC
Re^5: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by traveler (Parson) on Feb 17, 2007 at 00:14 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^2: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by ~~David~~ (Hermit) on Feb 20, 2007 at 16:34 UTC
Everyone, Thanks for your help. For reference, here is the working code... sub addMyFile{ my $file = shift; #this is the filename of the file i am adding my $fullpath = "$edmdir\\$file"; #full filename with path my $addpres = $ppt->Presentations->Open( $fullpath ) or die "Can't + open PowerPoint file '$fullpath': $!\n"; my @slides; my $j = 1; my $slide; while ($addpres->Slides($j)){$slides[$j] = $addpres->Slides($j);$j +++}; shift(@slides); #because I start at 1, i need to drop off the fir +st element. my $m; my $k = 0; foreach (@slides){ $m = $k+1; #because slide index starts at 1, not 0; $addpres->Slides($m)->Copy; #copy newly opened file slide... $pres->Slides->Paste($slideIndex); #past it into current pres +entation. $slideIndex++; $k++; } } [download] ~~David~~	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Adding Slide to Powerpoint by Herkum (Parson) on Feb 17, 2007 at 00:25 UTC
The error you were getting was, Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine at powerpoint_create_withEDM.pl line 259. Your problem point was this, `$pres -> Slides($slideIndex) = $slides[$k];` [download] Generally, in Perl, you cannot do an assignment of a value to a function/method. A lvalue assignment would like like this, `$foo->bar() = 'my value';` [download] I know that traveler solved your problem but maybe this will help you when you try and debug the next issue...	[reply] [d/l] [select]