Question

VB net 2008 and Office 2003 automation. GetObject and multiple Excel applications.

Asked by: MikeJW

VB net 2008 and Office 2003 automation.
I have several independent Excel applications running and I need to bind to one of them.
   GetObject(WbookPath).Application works fine.
However, when none of the open Excel applications are using the workbook I seek, then there is a problem.
GetObject binds to the oldest Excel application and I now have control of this Excel!!
(This also happened in VB6)
I need a way of determining that the Excel returned is NOT the one I am seeking.
Or is there a VB net way of doing this binding, not using GetObject?

Regards Mike

'*************************************************************************************************
'**  Example of VB net test routine using GetObject and Excel                              **
'**  Very usefull for programmers who did not know how to bind to open Excel  **
'*************************************************************************************************
 
'Project References :
'   Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel  Version 11  (Office 2003)
' or
'   Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel  Version 12  (Office 2007)
 
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop        'Needed for any Excel operations
 
Public Class Form1
    Dim xlApp As Excel.Application              'Dim xlApp As New Excel.Application would open Excel
    Dim xlWB As Excel.Workbook = Nothing
 
    'Try binding to the chosen Excel application
    Private Sub BindBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles BindBtn.Click
 
         Dim WbookPath As String = "--- put path\name workbook here ---"
     
         Try
             xlApp = GetObject(WbookPath).Application
         Catch ex As Exception
             MessageBox.Show("ex.Message: " & ex.Message & vbCrLf & "ex.Source: " & ex.Source)
         End Try
 
         If xlApp Is Nothing Then
             MessageBox.Show("Excel loaded but not the correct book!")
             Exit Sub
         End If
 
         'Prove it is the correct Excel
	 Dim Message as string
         For Each Me.xlWB In xlApp.Workbooks
             Message = Message & "W/B name = " & Me.xlWB.Name 
             Message = Message & "   No of W/S = " & Str(Me.xlWB.Worksheets.Count)
	     MsgBox(Message)
         Next
         xlApp.WindowState = Excel.XlWindowState.xlNormal
    End Sub
End Class

                                  
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Asked On
2009-02-06 at 02:41:59ID24118827
Tags

VB net

,

Office automation

,

GetObject

Topics

Automation

,

.NET

,

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

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Answers

 

by: roryaPosted on 2009-02-06 at 03:38:58ID: 23568760

In VB6 (and VBA) I would expect GetObject to open the document if it is not already open, and return to you a reference to the application that now contains the document. Does that not happen in .Net? If not, I suspect you would have to find each Excel application's window (XLMAIN) then loop through each child window to see if the caption matches the book you want.

 

by: MikeJWPosted on 2009-02-06 at 04:29:23ID: 23569088

Thanks rorya for prompt reply.
When GetObject is called without any Excel running :
      Excel application is started (process) but without any window (or workbook)
When GetObject is called with an Excel running, but not the one referenced :
      Vb net binds to the oldest Excel application (I will call this ghost)
      The  Excel ghost appears to have a new workbook with the reference name in getObject
      All references in the bound Excel are actually to the original ghost workbook so
            writing to the bound Excel places values in the ghost!!
      I don't know what happens if there are several workbooks opened in the ghost Excel.

Since I can easily tell when there is no Excel the problem remains :
      How can I tell this ghost is not the Excel I am seeking?
Listing the sheet names does not work as the user has 'standard' books with all the same sheet names.      
      
Regards
      mike

 

by: roryaPosted on 2009-02-06 at 04:44:28ID: 23569206

In what way is it not the Excel you are seeking? If you use GetObject, then the workbook will be opened if it not already opened (though the workbook window may well be invisible). If you then manipulate that workbook (note: you would be better assigning the result of GetObject to a Workbook variable; you can then reference the workbook directly) then the changes are made to the workbook you are trying to change. I'm afraid I'm missing what the problem is?

 

by: MikeJWPosted on 2009-02-06 at 05:31:12ID: 23569516

Thanks again rorya
Sorry about confusion but I have solved the problem (it was trivial,  see end).

The problem was NOT opening a workbook, I know how to do this and write, etc.
The problem was binding to to a an Excel which was opened independently, such as manually by a user.
I know at least one workbook loaded into the Excel I am seeking.
No matter how many Excel applications are running, if the one of these workbooks is loaded into one
of these Excel applications, then GetObject with the path\name of the workbook, will find it and
bind the Excel application object.

The problem is, when none of the Excel applications has a desired workbook loaded, then GetObject
does not return an error nor is the application object = Nothing.
Instead it binds to the oldest Excel application and its workbooks.

My basic problem is that I need to know this ghost Excel is not the Excel of my search.

False Trail:
When the Excel application object was not Nothing this led me to using VBA Edit and revealed a second ghost workbook had been created in the bound Excel, etc.
Enough on this, it's embarrassing.

Solution:
My apologies for it beeing so obvious.
After using GetObject and although the Excel application was wrong and lead to strange things,
the Excel workbook object was still = Nothing.

So the test is to see if my workbook object is nothing after the GetObject call.
      If xlWB Is Nothing Then
            MsgBox("Wrong bl**dy Excel!")
        End If

Incidently all the normal security regimes apply such as passwords and permissions.

Many thanks for making me stand back and thing about the problem.
Regards
      mike

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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