I have run into an odd problem while attempting to register a vendor-supplied ActiveX control on two different computers. On one computer, I can register the part using regsvr32, and then use it in an Access 2007 form with no problems. On the other computer, after I register the same DLL, it is simply not recognized as a valid ActiveX part by Access 2007, or any other Office 2007 program.
The ActiveX part is contained in a single DLL. I am not missing an additional file on one of the computers.
I cross-checked the exact version of the DLL on both computers using md5sum. Both DLL files are exactly identical.
I cross-checked all of the registry entries generated when the part is registered, using the Nirsoft ActiveX Helper utility. The entries are identical.
I checked Access to make sure that the part had a reference entry which pointed to the DLL.
I checked that the location of the DLL was specified as a Trusted Location in Access.
Unfortunately, I am not enough of a COM expert to know whether or not I am overlooking something odvious. Any additional ideas would be appreciated.
OK, total shot in the dark, but we have some computers in our organization the the IT has locked down pretty tight. When we run setup's they run OK and register our ActiveX components, but the first time we run the program it has to be as an administrator. After that the normal user is able to run the program.
You could try a simple VBS script to verify that the control can be created.
Using Notepad (or similar) save the following as test.vbs, and then double click it to run it.
set oTest = CreateObject("<YOUR PROGID HERE>")
MsgBox ("All Done Successfully")
You should get an reasonably descriptive error or "All Done Successfully".
This would at least point to whether its a system wide or Office specific problem.
And if you get an error it may well point to the actual problem.
OTH, if you don't get an error then you probably have an Office installation issue - which could be resolved by a re-install.
Related
I have a com dll developed in VB.net that provides an interface to eBay api's. Been working for many years. Recently eBay change certificate authority and moved to TLS 1.2. Sorted through that but now the dll seems to quit in mid transaction when called from Access. The functionality does listings from local inventory to eBay. The first part loads pictures of the listing item to eBay. That works fine. I can see the calls and responses using Fiddler. It then moves on to actually listing the item which seems to stop when called from Access. What I get back in Access is "Can't find x.dll at file location". I know the call is going to the dll because it uploads the pictures.
I have a test project developed in VB.net to test the dll and when run from that everything works. I can see the listing call and response in fiddler. When run from Access there is no listing call. I can verify that the endpoints for the calls are the same from test project or Access.
My question is how to debug the dll in the Visual Studio IDE when it is called from Access. Any thoughts?
Yes, the way you do this is open up the vs class you have for the .dll.
Then in debug of the project, setup this:
Now, when you hit f5, then access will launch and run.
If at this point, say you close access (exit), then you note the debugging process stops.
However, go though the forms and whatever in Access, and get to the point where you hit that button or whatever.
You find now that you can say set a break point and even step and debug your .net code like any other code. So say in my example (a custom sage 300 .net interface to access), I want to debug "find customer" routine from VBA.
Well, in vb.net I have this code:
so, when any routine - even those in the class instances is called, you can set break-points etc.
And to stop? Just exit access.
So, you can make a change to your code, and even hit f5.
It not clear how you are registering your .dll (or do you use some VBA to side-load the .net - that's what I do, since it is a pain to have to register my .net com objects on each PC.
But, do give the above a try. It should let you debug your .dll code. The trick is to have VS launch ms-access as a attached debug session - and that is exactly what the above setting in your class project above allows you to do.
do note in above, I used the path to access 2010 (access 14), so replace the path name to the access.exe with your version of access you are using.
And keep in mind, that if have some installer, or some custom "thing" that registers your .net .dll for you?
Well, during this process, if your VBA assumes a registered com object, then ensure you have this check box enabled:
On compile for the project settings, you thus want this option checked:
NOTE very careful, checking the above option does not change the code or anything at all - it ONLY does a regasum automatic for you, and this would of course re-register your existing .dll - which is what we want for debugging. After you done, do run your re-register of your .dll to switch back from the debug .dll that going to be in your current project bin folder to whatever you "regular" use on your PC.
FYI:
In MOST cases, I find this whole idea does NOT work unless you launch VS as administraor. So, make sure VS is being run as administraor for this to work.
I tend to just tap windows key, or even right click on your vs shortcut, and of course choose run as administraor.
This is so often required, you note that VS will EASY and quite CLEAR show you running in admin mode, and I quite much now always run VS this way.
You should see this:
I have written a rather complex application in Microsoft Access. It is split into front end and back end files. To protect my code, I have compiled it and saved it as a runtime .accde file, which I then changed to an .accdr file to ensure it operated as a runtime. I have created two versions of the application: one for those with 32-bit Office installed and one for those with 64-bit office. I have used Inno Setup to package the application, the data file, and other files such as the icon file, the license file, etc., into an installable package, which works just fine.
Among my team of 27 beta testers of this application, so far 6 have downloaded it, and I have tested it on four of my own computers. On seven of these computers, the installation works perfectly and the application runs with no problems.
On the computers of three of my testers, when they try to run it, they get this error message:
The expression On Open you entered as the event property setting produced the following error: Bad file name or number.
* The expression may not result in the name of a macro, the name of a user-defined function, or [Event Procedure].
I'm pretty sure I know where the code is that's causing the problem, but cannot for the life of me figure out why the application crashes on those 2 computers but not on others.
The On Open event I suspect of causing the problem checks the linked tables, gets their connect string, then looks at the path for that string for the back end database. If it does not find it there, the procedure pops up a file selector dialog and instructs the user to find the data file, then it relinks all the tables.
If anyone could point me in the right direction to fixing this problem, I would be extremely grateful.
This is typically caused by a reference labelled as MISSING.
You have two (three) options:
Run the application on the offending machines with a full version of Access that lets you debug the code
Create a small test application that lists and verifies the references you use, and run this on the offending machines
Remove those two customers
Thanks to all the contributors here. Because of these folks and additional online research, the latest answer I can find is this:
This error occurs on a small percentage of computers on which the app is installed, and no one has yet figured out why, what causes it, or how to fix it. The workaround is to install the 2013 version of the Access runtime, as later versions will still cause the problem.
At least one of the offending computers is running the Click-to-Run version of Office. Still gathering information, but that's the status as of now.
I have an Excel addin, developed in VBA, deployed on the network.
The addin reads from an Oracle database, and pastes tables in a new worksheet, which will also contain a button (triangle shape) to refresh the table.
Everything works great, but I must protect code with password.
When i do, the following error appears on some machines:
Compile error in hidden module: Main.
This error commonly occurs when code is incompatible with the version, platform, or architecture of this application.
Although it compiles perfectly when unlocked.
On other machines it requires VBA password on close, even though i have nothing of the sort defined under close event.
I am hoping to secure my code, without running into above problems.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
I know of two situations in which this error occurs:
1: 32bit vs. 64bit issues (already mentioned in the comments). If you've developed a 32bit addin and try to deploy/use it within a 64bit Excel, then your quoted error message will appear.
2: Missing references.
I think the second option is more likely to be the cause of the problem, because usually all client PCs in a company will have the identical version of MS Office installed and this error occurs only on some machines.
So I suggest to check your references. In the VBA-Editor (Alt+F11) go to tools --> references and note down any ticked modules. Then compare this to a client where the error is occuring (go to client PC and repeat the procedure).
If the ticked modules don't match between development and client PC, this is most likely the cause of this issue. You might also encounter modules with a "MISSING" written in front of their name on the client PC. In this case, remove the tick from the missing module and try to execute your addin.
If it works flawlessly you should be good to go, if not you'll have to manually install the missing modules on the clients PC.
Hope this will help you.
I've been trying for a while now to get a reference file to be loaded externally to no avail.
To be specific I am trying to load a "Microsoft Date and Time Picker Control 6.0(SP4)" which usually resides in C:\Windows\System32\MSCOMCT2.OCX
However some people that run a macro containing this element don't have that "MSCOMCT2.OCX" file on their PCs so I thought I will move the MSCOMCT2.OCX to a shared location and reference the code to use the shared one instead (so everyone will have access to it)
I tried doing that but when I was trying to load a reference with "Browse" from a different location it didn't load it - because I already had that in C:..
So I thought OK... I will remove the file from C:\ so I can only reference the shared file. - so I deleted it.
So I open the workbook again and look at references - I cant find "Microsotft Windows Common Controls-2.6.0(SP4)" - great!
And I proceed to add it manually with Browse from the shared drive.
When I do that however 2 references of "Microsotft Windows Common Controls-2.6.0(SP4)" are being added - 1 from C:\(which is not there) and 1 from the shared drive.
The one from C:\ is always automatically selected.
If I try to disable the one from C:\ and enable the one from the shared drive it automatically changes back to what it was when i press OK.
If I try to enable both - it says duplicate References and keeps only the one from C:\
So.. does anybody know how can I get rid of that C:\ reference from the list so it doesn't get loaded? Apparently deleting the files themselves did not work.
Ultimately my goal is to enable people without C:\Windows\System32\MSCOMCT2.OCX file to be able to use my Date Picker Tool.
Thanks a lot!
ActiveX control rereferences are always GUID-based. The VB IDE shows you the current location of the file as listed in the registry on your computer, as a courtesy, but it really doesn't matter what it says. The control will be loaded from wherever it was registered on the user's computer.
That's the key: the control must be registered on the user's computer.
I must strongly discourage you from doing what you're trying to do. You might be able to concoct a method by which you load the DLL from a network location, but it presents no advantage over doing the Right Thing(TM), and plenty of problems. The Right Thing is simply that if you need that control, you must distribute and register it with your application, just like everybody else does. And you really should install it in the recommended location for it (System32); not on the network.
Here's a quick example of what can go wrong: you provide your user with you app, and it works with the control on the network like you want it. Then the user installs another application that happens to need the same control. The app's installer sees that the control is already registered on the user's computer, so it doesn't try to add it again. Except that this particular app is intended to be used when the user is not connected to a network. Now you just broke someone else's program.
The VB/VBA architecture was never intended to support XCOPY deployment. I'm know it's a pain and that these extra steps are extremely inconvenient when you're just trying to deploy a "macro". Sadly, it's the nature of the beast. I'm sorry
My Application (Vb.net, Access 2003/2007) is to scan Access Database files for activex controls and to generate report accordingly.
Problem:
Getting an error like:
"Insufficient memory to continue the execution of the program."
The above error occurs while scanning for older version of Access files like prior to office 2000.
And the line of code where I get this is as follows:
Dim oForm As Access.Form
Dim oAccess as Access.Application
oForm = oAccess.Forms(objForms.Name)
But it opens the file and form as well.
Need Help:
Whether it is possible to read the file (Access Forms and Reports) or not?
Please provide me reference or any solution.
You appear to doing COM automation of Access to open the forms and then cycle through their controls looking for certain properties.
Another solution would also involve automating Access, but it wouldn't require actually opening the form, and that's the undocumented Application.SaveAsText command. You'd do something like this:
Application.Saveastext acForm, "dlgWebBrowser", _
"C:\Output\dlgWebBrowser.txt"
You would then have to figure out how ActiveX controls are described in that file. If that file looks like the code for a VB form, that's because that's precisely what it is.
The example above had an IE web browser control on it, and after a dump of OLE data, it had this in it:
OLEClass ="Microsoft Web Browser"
Class ="Shell.Explorer.2"
GUID = Begin
0x54c1ea41936d2046b9dc5b29905976e3
End
I would expect that all ActiveX controls will have an OLEClass, but I non-native avoid ActiveX controls on principle because of the problems they can cause if not properly installed when you try to run the app.
In fact, that could be the source of the problem -- if you open the Access form on a machine that doesn't have the relevant ActiveX control registered, it's going to fail, and the form won't open.
My bet is that Application.SaveAsText is going to sidestep that problem entirely, since the form doesn't have to be opened.
I've seen behaviour very similar to this before. Access 97 files will sometimes report an 'out of memory' error if you try to open them on a computer with more than (I think) 1Gb of RAM. The error doesn't always manifest itself immediately - sometimes the project can appear to run normally but crash when you try to open a particularly large object.
In the case where we did run into this the users were running an old Access 97 database on new XP machines they'd been upgraded to with modern amounts of RAM. Tech support for the company tried everything they could think of - including complete office reinstalls, applying all patches etc. but eventually had to resort to removing RAM from the computers - whereupon the errors went away and everything was rock solid again. I am uncertain as to the exact cause, but it will be connected with memory management in the Access 97 file format (I believe the error is on MSDN somewhere but I wasn't directly involved with Tech support hunting the solution down - I'd just written the application many years before)
I'd suggest you're only way out is to use a special, low memory, PC to run the application.