This is tangled.
I've been handed a web site written in classic ASP, with a lot of behind the scenes stuff done in VB6 COM+ objects called from the ASP pages via Server.ObjectCreate() instantiations. For this incarnation, the VB6 routines have been converted to VB.NET simply by running the Visual Studio 2003 converter tool on them, and then upgrading that solution file to VS 2008. So there's a thousand and one possible sources for error.
One of the VB6 Modules that is giving me trouble clears a bunch of Response cookies by lines of the following form:
ASPResponse.Cookies("SysUserCode") = ""
Where ASPResponse is defined as :
Private ASPResponse As ASPTypeLibrary.Response
And was set up on Object Activation by:
Set ASPResponse = objContext("Response")
In the VB.NET conversion of this module, those lines became
ASPResponse = ContextUtil.GetNamedProperty("Response")
and
ASPResponse.Cookies("SysUserCode")() = ""
(note the extra pair of parentheses. Not being much of a VB person, I'm not real sure what that syntax means.)
Okay, here's the question: When this code executes on MY machine, that line is giving a VB error 13, with the Error.Description being "Specified cast is not valid." Huh? What cast?
Incidentally, this module runs fine on a co-workers machine, and he cannot see any difference in the configuration of my machine and the relevant components from his.
I'm totally at a loss here. Googling it has given me a bunch of stuff on VB.NET cookies, or COM components with VB.NET, but nothing related to classic ASP cookies.
Is...
Private ASPResponse As ASPTypeLibrary.Response
Set ASPResponse = objContext("Response")
...Post VB.NET conversion? If so, you'll need to explicitly cast objContext("Response") into the ASPTypeLibrary.Response object. This especially applies if Option Strict is on. e.g.
ASPResponse = CType(objContext("Response"), ASPTypeLibary.Response)
Also, Set and Let statements aren't supported in VB.NET.
This MAY have to do with the way the COM component's host is activated. I read another post ([Klaus H. Probst])1 that indicated that, in order to access the Response element, the COM component had to be activated as a Library (as opposed to Server) so that it was running in the ASP process space. So I tried changing the Activation type of the Component's hosting application to library, resetting and rebuilding a few times, and now I'm able to access the Cookies element of the Response. However, my co-worker is still running the host application as a Server, and has no problem.
Related
Scenario:
My company has a legacy (read that as 32 bit) windows form application that will be around for quite some time in the future. This application uses an embedded web browser control that is supplied pages that are contained within the database that it maintains. It was built like this so we could extend/modify as needed. I say this so that I can validate that security is not a concern. Only the application and developers with the correct tools have access to the pages or database. The application is only available inside the office.
There are some processes that I need to accomplish using ActiveX objects that are embedded within the pages/application. One of the biggest and most annoying thing that happens is the ActiveX security warning when I got to create instances of things like “scripting.filesystemobject”. Example:
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
My solution is to create a DLL that is installed locally on each machine that needs access to the extended functions, have the all the functions (whole DLL ??) marked as safe so that the web browser control does not present the security warning. I have been searching using google and came across very few examples, and all of which are in C# which is not my strongest language.
I’ve had to convert from C to Vb.Net visual basic to get what I have now. When I go to register my DLL, I get the following error message:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319>regasm
Z:\VBNet2017\APIInternal\APIInternal\bin\Debug\APIinternal.dll /tlb
Microsoft .NET Framework Assembly Registration Utility version 4.8.4084.0
for Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.8.4084.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Types registered successfully
RegAsm : error RA0000 : Type 'APIInternal.API.Accupay' has an invalid default COM
interface: 'APIInternal.API.Accupay'
UPDATE: Thank you Hans; the error is gone. I've also made some changes in the source code; I changed the ProgID to something that closely resembles where and what this is for. I'm still having issues in creating the object in VB Script.
This is the output from the current version of the code. This is the code, stripped down for clarity:
Option Strict On
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.IO
Namespace API
Public Interface IAccupay
<DispId(1)>
Function GetFiles(ByVal Folder As String) As List(Of String)
End Interface
<Guid("8B4B5CEF-8B3A-49A1-9053-E909F82D9E73"),
ProgId("AddIn.Accupay"), ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None),
ComDefaultInterface(GetType(IAccupay)), ComVisible(True)>
Public Class Accupay
Implements IAccupay
Private Function GetFiles(Folder As String) As List(Of String) Implements IAccupay.GetFiles
Return Directory.GetFiles(Folder).ToList
End Function
End Class
I have tried just about every combination of ProgID, Name space, Interface name and class name to get this error to go away without any luck. I do know there are other elements that need to be addressed or added, such as error trapping and, if I’m not mistaken, how to actually implement the ObjectSafetyOption which I still don’t know how to do.
I have been using the Guide at the bottom of this article:
Is it possible to mark an ActiveX object as safe so that IE settings need not be changed?, the second answer, but I haven’t had any success.
Please, can someone point me in the right direction, maybe show me what’s wrong with the code that I have and how to physically implement the ObjectSafteyOption that is needed for the web control. Links, additional reading, code examples or comments on how to get this fixed and working would really be appreciated.
Thank you for reading and any help you send my way, Fred
PS: If you need more information, or have a better solution, please don’t hesitate to reply or comment.
UPDATE:
With the code that I have now, I am able to access the DLL in VB.Net visual basic:
Imports System
Imports APIInternal.API
Module Program
Sub Main(args As String())
Dim API As New Accupay
Dim FileList = API.GetFiles("C:\Windows\")
For Each Item As String In FileList
Console.WriteLine(Item)
Next
End Sub
End Module
However, I still can't seem to get the correct calling for a VB Script/html page:
Set Test = CreateObject("Test.Accupay")
Which returns the VB Script error "ActiveX Component can't create object: Test.Accupay or any other iteration of the parts of the name that I tried. I think part of this is that I don't understand how the creation of the project leads to the creation of the object in a com base environment like VB Script.
Fred
The answer to this problem is two fold: You must target the correct platform (X86) AND use the 32 bit version of regasm. Once I realized this was the issue, I was able to create the DLL and use it's functions in the Web Browser control without the active X warning. One example is I can now open the default browser (in this case, NOT IE/EDGE) from a link within the WB Control and another is to get the contents of a folder for further processing within the WB page.
When calling a 32 bit COM component method registered in sysWOW64 fails with an error message:
"type mismatch in method OleVarToLsVal, Unknown found, Unknown
expected"
Its win7 64 bit, but the Notes client is installed by default as a 32 bit application. The code looks like:
dim c as Variant
dim n as Variant
set c = createobject("MSWC.counters")
n = c.Get("xx")
When debugging the call, the object is set and testable with "isObject(c)", (although you can't inspect each method/property in detail in LotusScript debug).
The method is supposed to return a primitive long. I've tried setting n as long, clng-ing the values, cstr-ing the values, the parameter, strconv the parameter, using a variable for the parameter, all to no avail.
The exact same code run by WScript VBS host (in syswow64) runs the code as expected.
So, does anybody know:
If Notes 9 COM value marshalling is working for any components?
Is Notes 9 COM set to recognize the 'wow64' alternate 32 bit registry
Are there some COM related marshalling settings somewhere in the registry I can check (if so what/where are they)?
Is there some setting to tell Notes to use 32 bit components (like IIS 32bit compatibility option)
Is there anything I need to do or could do in the main OS to 'redirect or configure' COM
Or is Notes just broken again and nobody cares?
Any help appreciated - Thanks.
The easiest and probably most productive way to solve this would be to open a PMR with IBM. They should be able to answer this quite quickly.
Well, 7 years on (and seriously obsolete!) just an update for anybody looking for an answer... There are a couple of Notes settings needed and not all COM/Active-X componenets or data types are supported by LotusScript, so even if Notes is setup correctly, you still may not be able to acces/use any specific component or some methods in the component.
The user must be allowed to run unrestricted agents/code in the 'Sign or run unrestricted methods and operations:' in the security section of the server(s) document.
The Notes client execution control list ('ECL') must allow access to 'External programs' either by default or to the code-signer. An ECL warning box will ask the user to continue if the external access has not been granted.
If you try to execute an unsupported method or unsupported data type, then further errors will be issued either by LotusScript or COM/Active-X error reporting. The Notes developer help file for 'CreateObject' gives a bit more detail about unsupported data types:
LotusScript does not support identifying arguments for OLE methods or properties by name rather than by the order in which they appear, nor does LotusScript support using an OLE name by itself (without an explicit property) to identify a default property.
Results are unspecified for arguments to OLE methods and properties of type boolean, byte, and date that are passed by reference. LotusScript does not support these data types.
Relying on the 'default property' to access a default method is a common mistake and requires you to pay extra attention to the component details. It is easy to assume the component is not working, but in fact you're just not using it properly.
One way to test this is to try to open a common object available on all Windows machines (maybe others?) maybe 'FileSystemObject' (FSO) or VbScript 'regExp' component. If these work, you can build on that. Getting the 32/64bit registration correct for your client install is another element to test/get right.
For my issues, I suspect that I was using unsupported methods or data types and having used COM/Active-X in Notes occasionally, its all worked ok in general.
I am the IT department of a Non-Profit organization. I have a question today which might be too specialized for this forum and I hope I do not waste my time writing it up. We are using Blackbaud's 'Raiser's Edge' (RE) Software (written in VB6 and VB.net as far as I know) to keep track of our membership and donations. We have an MS Access application (have been using it since before we got RE) to process donations and for now I want to keep it and only do minor changes to adapt it to the new software.
The MS Access program is now doing a few calls to the RE API which work great. To login and establish a connection I have to create a new 'REAPI' object and use it for other API calls. That REAPI object has a method called: SignOutOnTerminate which needs to be set to TRUE when creating that object. It is supposed to kill all connections to RE once my application closes. There is no regular .close method.
Once I create the object I can do work as many times as I want and there is no problem at all as far as I can see.
However when trying to close the application or set the object to nothing (Set REAPI = Nothing) Access crashes immediately (It fades out and I get the message that Windows is looking for a solution to the problem. Then Access closes and restarts itself.)
It is more annoying and unprofessional then hindering production but I want to fix it.
The App was developed on Windows 7 64-bit with Access 2010 32-bit. It was tested on Windows XP with Office 2003 or 2007 machines (32-bit) and behaves the same way.
I have posted this problem already on 2 Blackbaud forums and tried a suggested a work around which did not work (kill the process with a shell command and then set the object to nothing). Hopefully I will get more answers soon.
I tried to just exclude the SignOutOnTerminate when creating the object. But got the same behavior.
I looked in the Event Manager --> Application Log and found the Crash. It reported that access crashed because of this dll: C:\Windows\System32\MSVBVM60.dll (It is actually located in the SysWos64 folder as it is a 32-bit application).
Looking up this error I found some suggestions to replace it with an earlier version of the dll, the one which ships with XP. I found a file and tried the suggestion but it still crashed. The error log reported the older version number as faulting so I registered it correctly.
I also created a case with Blackbaud but the rep did not know what the problem is and did not have MS Access installed. He is trying to get his support team to install it for him so he can test and investigate this error.
The last suspicion I have is that the API is causing the error and my code is fine.
But before I make this assumption and until I get my answer from Blackbaud I want to do a final check, but I have run out of ideas for further trouble shooting and resorted to pose this problem in this forum.
Any Ideas?
I realise that this is an old thread and if you have solved this by now then that is great. However this is a known issue with The Raiser's Edge API. If you use .NET with RE's API (which is COM based) there is definitely some resource that is not cleaned up properly. At one point I suspected that it was something to with making use of RE's graphical interface i.e. by calling the regular login method to log you into RE. However even if you log in to RE using the "as a server" method supplying the user name and password it still crashes on exiting the application.
We have an installer that sets up credentials in RE. The installer is in .NET and accesses the RE API. We now show a message just before the end of the application telling users to ignore the impending crash... Not a great solution by any means.
We have a number of classic ASP websites using a VB6 DLL (COM) object for their functionality in the standard way. The DLL is regsvr32'd and the pages use Server.CreateObject to create an instance of the necessary object in the DLL, which in turn triggers the OnStartPage function of the object being created, passing in the ScriptingContext which we then use to get Request (querystring, form) information, read/update session information and read/write cookie information (etc). For clarification, the way you update/store a cookie value using ScriptingContext is
objSC.Response.Cookies(Key) = Value
In preperation of doing a complete .Net overhaul on the code base (and as a first step), we ran the code through the .Net 2008 VB upgrade tool, which makes a few minor code changes, sets up references to interop libraries (for ADODB, ASPTypeLibrary, CDO, etc) and adds the necessary attributes to allow the .Net object to be exposed to COM, and after a few tweaks here and there guided by comments (todos) left by the upgrade tool, the code is compilable except for anything that tried to update/store a cookie using the above code as now, through the ASPTypeLibrary (Interop), the Response.Cookies collection is readonly (with no obvious way to write a cookie now).
If I comment out the offending line of code, the code compiles, and all I need to do is register this new .Net DLL (and it's interop DLLs) in the GAC, use regasm to register it through COM and the classic ASP sites continue working as if nothing happened (except for writing cookies), using Server.CreateObject to create what it thinks is a COM object, triggering the call to OnStartPage, passing in the ScriptingContext.
So although the code base is "upgraded" to .Net it is using a lot of interop libraries to continues working as before, including using the ASPTypeLibrary.ScriptingContext object, as this is what the classic ASP pipeline exposes.
Does anyone know how to write/store a cookie in this scenario?
Need to convert cookie item to IWriteCookie interface. Then it will be writable.
Imports ASPTypeLibrary
Public Class Test
Private oContext As ASPTypeLibrary.ScriptingContext
Private oResponse As ASPTypeLibrary.Response
Public Sub OnStartPage(e As ScriptingContext)
oContext = e
oResponse = oContext.Response
With CType(oResponse.Cookies("fromdotnet"), IWriteCookie)
.Item = String.Format("hello from .Net : {0}", Date.UtcNow())
'.Domain = ""
'.Path = "/"
'.Secure = False
End With
End Sub
End Class
You may want to check out other interfaces such as IReadCookie, IStringList, IRequestDictionary etc.
With note that:
Full trust for the immediate caller. This member cannot be used by partially trusted code.
there is another option : ContextUtil.GetNamedProperty Method
System.EnterpriseServices.ContextUtil.GetNamedProperty("Response").Cookies("fromdotnet") = "hello"
I want to migrate an application from VB6.0 to VB.net.
I migrate it myself and get an error on this two lines. The error says "ExecWB is not a member of System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser"!!The same error with the ExecWB Method. I dont find any solution or any equivalent code in .net for that. Do I need an imprt or reference or equivalent type?
Please help.
eQuery = webBrowser.QueryStatusWB(SHDocVw.OLECMDID.OLECMDID_COPY)
webBrowser.ExecWB(SHDocVw.OLECMDID.OLECMDID_PAGESETUP,
SHDocVw.OLECMDEXECOPT.OLECMDEXECOPT_DODEFAULT, Nothing, Nothing)
webBrowser?
Thank you
There are two different WebBrowser things, the WebBrowser Object and the WebBrowser Control. The object is the ActiveX version that you were using in VB6 while the control was completely redesigned to follow .Net standards. While there may be some common methods, properties and events between the two they are not really related.
You can continue to use the ActiveX version in .Net just fine if you want. You'll need to add a reference to it either via the Add References menu or by adding the Microsoft Web Browser object to your toolbox. If you want to use the .Net version then you'll need to find the updated way to do your specific tasks.
A 30s Google search returned this article that suggests you can use late binding on the ActiveXInstance property to access the methods directly.
Note that this method is marked as "infrastructure use only" and may well be subject to change/removal, etc at a later date.