Create DLL in Visual Studio 2005 accessible by Excel 2002

[Steve]

I am trying to create a DLL in Visual Studio 2005-Visual Basic that contains
custom functions. I believe I need to use COM interop to allow VBA code in
Excel 2002 to access it. I've studied everything I can find on COM Interop
and .NET. I've also tried many of the 'Walkthroughs' on the MSDN site
relating to COM add-ins, .NET and Office XP but am unable to get even these
working in Excel 2002 or Word 2002.

I've installed the Office XP PIA's; I have Office XP SP3 installed; I'm
developing on a Windows XP Pro SP2 system.

Specifically the article, "How To Build an Office COM Add-in by Using Visual
Basic .NET" located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302896/, doesn't
function in Excel 2002. It does work in Access 2002 and PowerPoint 2002,
however so I believe the Add-in is being correctly registered in the GAC.

When I start Excel, I get no 'connect' message and no button but excel
starts without error. I get no 'disconnect' message on closing Excel,
either. The behavior is the same in Word. Also, After the Word or Excel
starts, the
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\[OfficeApp]\Addins\[ProgID]\LoadBehavior"
registry entry changes from a 0x03 to a 0x02. This doesn't happen in Access.

I don't even care about the commandbar buttons for my purposes; I just want
to have access to my custom functions.

Any suggestions?

PS Some of the references I've researched are:

INFO: Develop Microsoft Office solutions with Visual Studio .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311452/EN-US/

Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies Known Issue
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnoxpta/html/odc_piaissues.asp

Walkthrough: Creating COM Objects with Visual Basic 2005
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x66s8zcd.aspx

COM Interoperability in .NET Framework Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e7a79b4y.aspx

And many others...

 

[Jim Cone]

Did you see this one...
'--------------------------------
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...a/html/OfficeVSTOWindowsInstallerOverview.asp
"To run Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office solutions,
you must install the following software on the each user's computer:
....A version of Word 2003, Excel 2003, or Outlook 2003 that supports
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office..."

'------------------------------------------------------

Note: Visual Studio "Visual Basic" is not Visual Basic.
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware



"Steve" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
I am trying to create a DLL in Visual Studio 2005-Visual Basic that contains
custom functions. I believe I need to use COM interop to allow VBA code in
Excel 2002 to access it. I've studied everything I can find on COM Interop
and .NET. I've also tried many of the 'Walkthroughs' on the MSDN site
relating to COM add-ins, .NET and Office XP but am unable to get even these
working in Excel 2002 or Word 2002.

I've installed the Office XP PIA's; I have Office XP SP3 installed; I'm
developing on a Windows XP Pro SP2 system.

Specifically the article, "How To Build an Office COM Add-in by Using Visual
Basic .NET" located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302896/, doesn't
function in Excel 2002. It does work in Access 2002 and PowerPoint 2002,
however so I believe the Add-in is being correctly registered in the GAC.

When I start Excel, I get no 'connect' message and no button but excel
starts without error. I get no 'disconnect' message on closing Excel,
either. The behavior is the same in Word. Also, After the Word or Excel
starts, the
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\[OfficeApp]\Addins\[ProgID]\LoadBehavior"
registry entry changes from a 0x03 to a 0x02. This doesn't happen in Access.

I don't even care about the commandbar buttons for my purposes; I just want
to have access to my custom functions.

Any suggestions?

PS Some of the references I've researched are:

INFO: Develop Microsoft Office solutions with Visual Studio .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311452/EN-US/

Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies Known Issues
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnoxpta/html/odc_piaissues.asp

Walkthrough: Creating COM Objects with Visual Basic 2005
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x66s8zcd.aspx

COM Interoperability in .NET Framework Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e7a79b4y.aspx

And many others...

 

[Steve]

Thank you for replying, Jim.

I don't have "Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office", just "Visual Studio 2005
Standard Edition" and I'm trying to work with Excel 2002 so I didn't think
that it would apply.

I think life would be much easier if I was trying to work with Office 2003
because of it's .NET compatibility.

My understanding of the term "Visual Basic" is that it generally refers to
Visual Basic 6, which has no problem producing COM .DLLs. I'm trying to use
the features of Visual Basic 2005 included in Visual Studio 2005 to produce
the COM .DLL.

Any input or corrections are welcome.

Did you see this one...
'--------------------------------
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...a/html/OfficeVSTOWindowsInstallerOverview.asp
"To run Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office solutions,
you must install the following software on the each user's computer:
....A version of Word 2003, Excel 2003, or Outlook 2003 that supports
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office..."

'------------------------------------------------------

Note: Visual Studio "Visual Basic" is not Visual Basic.
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware



"Steve" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
I am trying to create a DLL in Visual Studio 2005-Visual Basic that contains
custom functions. I believe I need to use COM interop to allow VBA code in
Excel 2002 to access it. I've studied everything I can find on COM Interop
and .NET. I've also tried many of the 'Walkthroughs' on the MSDN site
relating to COM add-ins, .NET and Office XP but am unable to get even these
working in Excel 2002 or Word 2002.

I've installed the Office XP PIA's; I have Office XP SP3 installed; I'm
developing on a Windows XP Pro SP2 system.

Specifically the article, "How To Build an Office COM Add-in by Using Visual
Basic .NET" located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302896/, doesn't
function in Excel 2002. It does work in Access 2002 and PowerPoint 2002,
however so I believe the Add-in is being correctly registered in the GAC.

When I start Excel, I get no 'connect' message and no button but excel
starts without error. I get no 'disconnect' message on closing Excel,
either. The behavior is the same in Word. Also, After the Word or Excel
starts, the
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\[OfficeApp]\Addins\[ProgID]\LoadBehavior"
registry entry changes from a 0x03 to a 0x02. This doesn't happen in Access.

I don't even care about the commandbar buttons for my purposes; I just want
to have access to my custom functions.

Any suggestions?

PS Some of the references I've researched are:

INFO: Develop Microsoft Office solutions with Visual Studio .NET
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311452/EN-US/

Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies Known Issues
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnoxpta/html/odc_piaissues.asp

Walkthrough: Creating COM Objects with Visual Basic 2005
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x66s8zcd.aspx

COM Interoperability in .NET Framework Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e7a79b4y.aspx

And many others...

 

[Steve]

A responder in the dontnet.languages.vb forum helped me identify that Excel
and Word were loading v1.1 of the .NET framework instead of v2.

There is a fix for this at:
"Add-ins, smart documents, or smart tags that you create by using Microsoft
Visual Studio 2005 do not run in Office"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908002/

My DLL and the demo add-ins worked after installation of this download.