C# VBA DLL issues

[This question may belong in another group (some sort of .NET or C#
group). If it does, please point me in the right direction!]

I've created a DLL in C# (VS2005, using .NET framework 2.0) for use
with Excel XP (to provide some business logic, as well as connectivity
to various components of our business applications). The same DLL is
also to be used with Project 2003. I've created the DLL as COM
Visible, and registered it properly - it works properly in Project
2003, which is what I've been using to test it (thinking that it would
work fine in Excel as well).

My problem is that now when I try to use the DLL from Excel XP, I get
an error on creating a "new" class from the DLL - and because of this,
I can't use any of the classes in the DLL.

For example:
--------------------------------------------------------
public sub tester()
{
dim x as myDLL.myTestClass 'Statement 1
set x = new myDLL.myTestClass 'Statement 2
}
--------------------------------------------------------
Statement 1 executes just fine - intellisense even figures out all the
class members (so if I were to start typing "x.testM", it would figure
out it was "x.testMethod").
Statement 2, however, I get an automation error on - without any
description:
--------------------------------------------------------
"Run-time error '-2146232576 (80131700)':
Automation Error
--------------------------------------------------------

The exact same sub, however, works without any problems at all in
Project 2003. Note that I don't use any Office Interop libraries (This
is a very simple class I created to test this problem, so it basically
has 1 method that sets the only variable in the class, and has a
default myTestClass() constructor), so I don't know why it doesn't work
in XP.

Would anyone be able to help me here? Have I somehow used a COM format
that doesn't work with XP? Does anyhow have an insight that can help?

Thank you in advance!
- Kurtis W. Story

Hi Kurtis,

I'm no interop expert, but here's a thread that may or may not help you:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...53976&SiteID=1

I'd try another group if this doesn't help (maybe
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop).
--
Regards,

Jake Marx
www.longhead.com


[please keep replies in the newsgroup - email address unmonitored]


Temporalis wrote:
> [This question may belong in another group (some sort of .NET or C#
> group). If it does, please point me in the right direction!]
>
> I've created a DLL in C# (VS2005, using .NET framework 2.0) for use
> with Excel XP (to provide some business logic, as well as connectivity
> to various components of our business applications). The same DLL is
> also to be used with Project 2003. I've created the DLL as COM
> Visible, and registered it properly - it works properly in Project
> 2003, which is what I've been using to test it (thinking that it would
> work fine in Excel as well).
>
> My problem is that now when I try to use the DLL from Excel XP, I get
> an error on creating a "new" class from the DLL - and because of this,
> I can't use any of the classes in the DLL.
>
> For example:
> --------------------------------------------------------
> public sub tester()
> {
> dim x as myDLL.myTestClass 'Statement 1
> set x = new myDLL.myTestClass 'Statement 2
> }
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Statement 1 executes just fine - intellisense even figures out all the
> class members (so if I were to start typing "x.testM", it would figure
> out it was "x.testMethod").
> Statement 2, however, I get an automation error on - without any
> description:
> --------------------------------------------------------
> "Run-time error '-2146232576 (80131700)':
> Automation Error
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> The exact same sub, however, works without any problems at all in
> Project 2003. Note that I don't use any Office Interop libraries
> (This is a very simple class I created to test this problem, so it
> basically has 1 method that sets the only variable in the class, and
> has a default myTestClass() constructor), so I don't know why it
> doesn't work in XP.
>
> Would anyone be able to help me here? Have I somehow used a COM
> format that doesn't work with XP? Does anyhow have an insight that
> can help?
>
> Thank you in advance!
> - Kurtis W. Story

Thanks for the reply Jake.

That thread did give me new ideas to try. However, none of them worked
. I've posted in some other groups, and if I get a reply that fixes
the problem post it here so anyone looking here can find it.

An update on what I've tried:
Uninstalling Microsoft Project 2003 did not correct the issue.
Compiling under Visual Studio 2003 did not help.
Compiling under Visual Studio 6.0 did not help.
Creating wrapper objects in Visual Basic .NET, 2003, and 6.0 did not
help (it works fine until it gets into Office).
Different settings and methods of exposing the classes and methods (as
shown here
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...53976&SiteID=1)
did not work.

I suspect now that the issue has to do with the framework - perhaps
Office XP cannot load the .NET 2.0 Framework? Or perhaps it defaultly
loads the 1.1 Framework, and can not load the 2.0 Framework? I've
still got to track down a copy of Excel 2003 (the tech guy's out
today), and see if it is able to run the DLL, showing for sure if the
issue is with the DLL or with Office.

Thanks again for your help Jake!

- Kurtis W. Story

No problem, Kurtis. The post I thought may help you was this one:

<quote>
OK. I figured out the problem
The class I am using for interop inherits from an abstract class.
I did not have the abstract class decorated with the interop attributes.
Before I installed the 2.0 framework this was all fine and it worked just
fine. However, once I installed 2.0 I got the automation error.
So to make the automation error go away all I had to do is decorate the
abstract class.
</quote>

Does that situation apply to you? If so, did you try the suggestion
(decorate the abstract class with interop attr)?

Good luck - hope you find a solution.

--
Regards,

Jake Marx
www.longhead.com


[please keep replies in the newsgroup - email address unmonitored]

Temporalis wrote:
> Thanks for the reply Jake.
>
> That thread did give me new ideas to try. However, none of them
> worked . I've posted in some other groups, and if I get a reply
> that fixes the problem post it here so anyone looking here can find
> it.
>
> An update on what I've tried:
> Uninstalling Microsoft Project 2003 did not correct the issue.
> Compiling under Visual Studio 2003 did not help.
> Compiling under Visual Studio 6.0 did not help.
> Creating wrapper objects in Visual Basic .NET, 2003, and 6.0 did not
> help (it works fine until it gets into Office).
> Different settings and methods of exposing the classes and methods (as
> shown here
> http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...53976&SiteID=1)
> did not work.
>
> I suspect now that the issue has to do with the framework - perhaps
> Office XP cannot load the .NET 2.0 Framework? Or perhaps it defaultly
> loads the 1.1 Framework, and can not load the 2.0 Framework? I've
> still got to track down a copy of Excel 2003 (the tech guy's out
> today), and see if it is able to run the DLL, showing for sure if the
> issue is with the DLL or with Office.
>
> Thanks again for your help Jake!
>
> - Kurtis W. Story

Jake,

I found a solution to the problem.

While I was not programming an Office "add-in, smart document, or smart
tag", I tried the solution here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908002/, and it was able to correct the
issue. This didn't come up when I tried to update Office through
Windows / Office update, which was strange, but now everything works
fine!

Thanks for the help!

- Kurtis W. Story