KB147573 - PRB: Microsoft Excel Not Registered in Running Object Table

Article ID: 147573

Article Last Modified on 9/24/2003

Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0b Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q147573

SYMPTOMS

According to Visual FoxPro Help, the following command will create a reference to a running instance of Microsoft Excel:

   oleApp = GETOBJECT(,"Excel.Application")

However, with Microsoft Excel version 7.0, this command can cause the following error even if Microsoft Excel is running:

OLE error code 0x800401e3: Operation unavailable

CAUSE

Previous versions of Microsoft Excel register the application object in the OLE RunningObjectTable (ROT) on startup. This would happen under all circumstances, whether Microsoft Excel was Launched using OLE or not.

Microsoft Excel 7.0 does not register the application object in the ROT on startup by default. However, Microsoft Excel 7.0 registers itself in the ROT in any of the following situations:

When launched by OLE, as in this example:

   CREATEOBJECT("Excel.Application"))

When a Module is inserted in one of the Workbooks.
When a WM_USER+18 message is sent to the Main window of Microsoft Excel.

RESOLUTION

In Visual FoxPro, send a WM_USER+18 message to the Main window of Microsoft Excel to force Microsoft Excel to register itself in the ROT.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

The following code demonstrates how to create a reference to a running instance of Microsoft Excel 7.0:

   * Start sample code
   * Main program code
   oleExcel = findxl()
   IF TYPE("oleExcel") = "N"
      =MessageBox("No instances of Excel running !")
   ELSE
       oleExcel.WindowState = -4137  &&maximize Excel
   ENDIF

   FUNCTION findxl
   DECLARE LONG FindWindowA IN USER32 AS FindA STRING,STRING
   DECLARE LONG SendMessageA IN USER32 AS SendA LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG

   WM_USER = 1024
   PRIVATE myExcelApp
   PRIVATE mySendMessage

   hwnd = FindA("XLMAIN", 0)
   IF hwnd = 0 then
      RETURN 0
   ELSE
      mySendMessage = SendA(hwnd, WM_USER + 18, 0, 0)
      myExcelApp = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
      RETURN myExcelApp
   ENDIF

If you are using Microsoft Office 2000 or Microsoft Office XP, change the following:

mySendMessage = SendA(hwnd, WM_USER + 18, 0, 0)

to the following:

mySendMessage = SendA(hwnd, WM_ACTIVATEAPP, 0, 0)

For additional information about using the GETOBJECT() function to reference Microsoft Excel, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

132535 Releasing Object Variable Does Not Close Microsoft Excel

128994 Behavior of GETOBJECT()With Excel and Word For Windows

Additional query words: VFoxWin kbinf CREATEOBJECT OLE automation

Keywords: kbprb kbcode KB147573