Visible Instances of an Application

[TCook]

Hello All,

I am building something that needs to grab a certain instance of MS Excel.
Unfortunately, "GetObject" randomly chooses an instance and, therefore, is
not appropriate / robust enough by itself. In pseudo code, what I need is
below:

For each pProcess in Processes
If instr(pProcess.Name, "Excel") > 0 And pProcess.Visible = True
Then
Set MyAppInstance = pProcess.Instance

Exit For
End If
Next pProcess

Thanks & Regards,

TC

[William DePalo [MVP VC++]]

"TCook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:elz%[email protected]...
> I am building something that needs to grab a certain instance of MS Excel.
> Unfortunately, "GetObject" randomly chooses an instance and, therefore, is
> not appropriate / robust enough by itself. In pseudo code, what I need is
> below:
>
> For each pProcess in Processes
> If instr(pProcess.Name, "Excel") > 0 And pProcess.Visible = True
> Then
> Set MyAppInstance = pProcess.Instance
>
> Exit For
> End If
> Next pProcess

This isn't really a kernel issue but as you posted here, and as you seem to
be after a process list, CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(), Process32First(), and
Process32Next() will get that for you. You can check the docs for the
ProcessEntry32 structure to see if it contains the data that you need.

Just by the way, the main window for the version of Excel I have installed
here has a window class name of "XLMAIN". If the class name is constant
across versions you could use EnumWindows() to list the windows and
GetClassName() to filter out Excel's.

Regards,
Will

[TCook]

Hey Will,

Thanks for the info. After obtaining the appropriate process, can I then
actually get the instance of the Excel app such that I can work with its
object model?

Regards,

Todd



"William DePalo [MVP VC++]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "TCook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:elz%[email protected]...
>> I am building something that needs to grab a certain instance of MS
>> Excel. Unfortunately, "GetObject" randomly chooses an instance and,
>> therefore, is not appropriate / robust enough by itself. In pseudo code,
>> what I need is below:
>>
>> For each pProcess in Processes
>> If instr(pProcess.Name, "Excel") > 0 And pProcess.Visible = True
>> Then
>> Set MyAppInstance = pProcess.Instance
>>
>> Exit For
>> End If
>> Next pProcess
>
> This isn't really a kernel issue but as you posted here, and as you seem
> to be after a process list, CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(), Process32First(),
> and Process32Next() will get that for you. You can check the docs for the
> ProcessEntry32 structure to see if it contains the data that you need.
>
> Just by the way, the main window for the version of Excel I have installed
> here has a window class name of "XLMAIN". If the class name is constant
> across versions you could use EnumWindows() to list the windows and
> GetClassName() to filter out Excel's.
>
> Regards,
> Will
>

[Steve Yandl]

Todd,

The MS Word object has a 'Tasks' collection that will let you isolate
visible instances of active Windows. It might be worth the trouble to
create a hidden instance of Word and get the list.

Steve


"TCook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hey Will,
>
> Thanks for the info. After obtaining the appropriate process, can I then
> actually get the instance of the Excel app such that I can work with its
> object model?
>
> Regards,
>
> Todd
>
>
>
> "William DePalo [MVP VC++]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> "TCook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:elz%[email protected]...
>>> I am building something that needs to grab a certain instance of MS
>>> Excel. Unfortunately, "GetObject" randomly chooses an instance and,
>>> therefore, is not appropriate / robust enough by itself. In pseudo
>>> code, what I need is below:
>>>
>>> For each pProcess in Processes
>>> If instr(pProcess.Name, "Excel") > 0 And pProcess.Visible = True
>>> Then
>>> Set MyAppInstance = pProcess.Instance
>>>
>>> Exit For
>>> End If
>>> Next pProcess
>>
>> This isn't really a kernel issue but as you posted here, and as you seem
>> to be after a process list, CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(), Process32First(),
>> and Process32Next() will get that for you. You can check the docs for the
>> ProcessEntry32 structure to see if it contains the data that you need.
>>
>> Just by the way, the main window for the version of Excel I have
>> installed here has a window class name of "XLMAIN". If the class name is
>> constant across versions you could use EnumWindows() to list the windows
>> and GetClassName() to filter out Excel's.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Will
>>
>
>

[Someone]

If you are doing this for the purpose of automation, then perhaps you may
want to explain why you need this further as others may have alternative
solutions. For example, if you were referencing an instance and then
released it, then you have to keep it for as long as needed.

Also, what Office versions are you targeting? Generally the higher the
version, the easier to work with.

Making a routine that gets references to all open Excel instances involves
making dummy Add-ins, DLL's, and interprocess communications. Not a simple
process. I have not done it before with Office applications.

In Excel XP or after, you can use ActiveX EXE's as Add-ins, which might
simplify the process.

The add-in DLL/EXE would get Excel's instance and deliver it to your EXE.
The problem is that you can't use ObjPtr(), VarPtr(), CopyMemory and send
the reference to Application or any other object to another process(EXE), if
you do, the application will crash. The only way to do it is through DCOM,
see the KB articles below which return a recordset object, you can use the
same method to return Excel.Application. You may have to do something like
Coffee2 sample that comes with MSDN, which is not very simple.

Links:

How To Create a DCOM Client/Server Application by Using Visual Basic
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;266717

How To Create a DCOM Client/Server with Events by Using Visual Basic
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;267836

Using DCOM with complex objects:

How To Implement Visual Basic COM Objects Returning Recordsets
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;224424

INFO: Passing ADO Recordsets in Visual Basic Procedures
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;193871

Coffee2 sample:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ffeeCoffee.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...entsinking.asp



"TCook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:elz%[email protected]...
> Hello All,
>
> I am building something that needs to grab a certain instance of MS Excel.
> Unfortunately, "GetObject" randomly chooses an instance and, therefore, is
> not appropriate / robust enough by itself. In pseudo code, what I need is
> below:
>
> For each pProcess in Processes
> If instr(pProcess.Name, "Excel") > 0 And pProcess.Visible = True
> Then
> Set MyAppInstance = pProcess.Instance
>
> Exit For
> End If
> Next pProcess
>
> Thanks & Regards,
>
> TC
>