The information in this article applies to:
- Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual
Basic, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0
SUMMARY
Visual Basic 4.0 not only allows you to build OLE Servers but also to build
applications that can use them. Microsoft Excel 5.0 is an OLE Automation
Client application, and can therefore be used to call methods and
properties from OLE servers created with Visual Basic 4.0. This article
describes the process of using OLE servers created by Visual Basic 4.0
with Excel 5.0.
The example is using the OLE server example created in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q129801
TITLE : HOWTO: Create and Use a Minimal OLE Automation Server
MORE INFORMATION
Prior to following this example, make sure you have built the OLE Server
discussed in Q129801, and have built an EXE file.
Steps to Use a Visual Basic 4.0 OLE Server with Excel 5.0
- Start Excel 5.0 with the default workbook, Book1.
- Select the Excel Insert menu and choose the Macro/Module item from this
menu. This will insert a Visual Basic code module into our new workbook.
- Select the Excel Tools menu and choose the References item. This will
bring up the References dialog box.
- From the References dialog box, select the browse button. This will
bring up the Browse dialog box.
- In the FileName section of the browse dialog box, change the listings to
*.EXE. This will allow us to look for our OLE Server we have already
created as an executable file.
- Use the dialog box to move to the drive and directory containing the OLE
server and select it. Then select the OK button.
- Now you will see Project1 in the Available References box in the
References dialog box. Project1 should be checked; if it is not, then
check it. Once you confirm Project1 is in the list and checked, click
the OK button. You now have a reference to the OLE server in Excel.
- Place the following code into the code module.
Sub CallServer()
Dim MyObj As Object
Set MyObj = CreateObject("Project1.Class1")
MsgBox MyObj.MyString
MsgBox MyObj.MyFunction()
Set MyObj = Nothing
End Sub
Note the parentheses following the line MsgBox MyObj.Myfunction(). The
parentheses are not required when calling an OLE Server from Visual
Basic 4.0, but they are required when you call an OLE Server from Excel
5.0.
- Now select the Excel Run menu and select the Start item. When this
subroutine executes, you will get two message boxes. The first one will
say "Life is like a box of chocolates." and the second one will say "You
never know what you're gonna get."
Keywords : IAPOLE VB4ALL VB4WIN vbwin GnrlVb kbinterop kbprg
Technology : kbvba
Version : WINDOWS:4.00
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto