When I started trying to write automations for Excel 2007 using C++, I ran into problems right up front. I was trying to use #import to get to the type library for Excel 2007, and was importing what I thought was the correct file. The following was written for a C++ application in Visual Studio 2008 (VS2008), automating Excel 2007.

1. The Excel Type Library is not contained in XL5EN32.OLB as you might expect, it is contained in excel.exe
2. Error #2: Even importing the correct file, errors were being raised.

   //The Following Import gives you the error Error	1	error C2504: '_IMsoDispObj' : base class undefined
   #import "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE"
   

   To correctly import the Excel type library, two more references are needed: MSO.DLL and VBE6EXT.OLB

   #import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\mso.dll" no_implementation raw_interfaces_only
   #import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6EXT.OLB" no_implementation raw_interfaces_only
   #import "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\excel.exe" no_implementation raw_interfaces_only
   

3. While this solved the problem of the _IMsoDispObj, it raised a few more issues.

   warning C4003: not enough actual parameters for macro 'RGB'
   warning C4003: not enough actual parameters for macro 'DialogBoxW'
   

   Finally I had the solution, renaming the objects in question that seemed to be redefined elsewhere.

   #import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\MSO.DLL" no_implementation rename("RGB", "ExclRGB") rename("DocumentProperties", "ExclDocumentProperties") rename("SearchPath", "ExclSearchPath")
   #import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6EXT.OLB" no_implementation
   #import "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE" rename("DialogBox", "ExclDialogBox") rename("RGB", "ExclRGB") rename("CopyFile", "ExclCopyFile") rename("ReplaceText", "ExclReplaceText")
   

So in conclusion, in order to import the Excel 2007 Type Library in C++ and use it in your automations, 3 files must be imported, MSO.DLL, VBE6EXT.OLB, and EXCEL.EXE. On top of those three files, various objects must be renamed due to already being defined. In my case it was the DialogBox and RGB, though it may differ on each project depending on what is defined. Here is the final code needed to import the type library.

#import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\MSO.DLL" no_implementation rename("RGB", "ExclRGB") rename("DocumentProperties", "ExclDocumentProperties") rename("SearchPath", "ExclSearchPath")
#import "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6EXT.OLB" no_implementation
#import "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE" rename("DialogBox", "ExclDialogBox") rename("RGB", "ExclRGB") rename("CopyFile", "ExclCopyFile") rename("ReplaceText", "ExclReplaceText")

Useful Links:

• Reading a cell from an Excel Worksheet
• Using Excel Type Library in VS 2005

A couple days ago I showed you how to access the Microsoft Word 2007 COM API through Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA). Today, I’m going to switch it up just a little bit, and use the same method to access the Microsoft Excel 2007 COM API. Again, we’ll be using AccesssibleObjectFromWindow to get at the main Excel::Window object. From that object, you can obtain the Excel Application, and Excel Workbook objects. Some documentation from Microsoft can be found here.

First we obtain the hwnd of the Microsoft Excel Process:

//The main window in Microsoft Excel has a class name of XLMAIN
HWND excelWindow = FindWindow(L"XLMAIN", NULL);

We can then traverse the child windows until we find the one with classname EXCEL7:

//Use the EnumChildWindows function to iterate through all child windows until we find EXCEL7
EnumChildWindows(excelWindow, (WNDENUMPROC) EnumChildProc, (LPARAM)1);

static BOOL EnumChildProc(HWND hwnd, LPARAM)
{
     WCHAR szClassName[64];
     if(GetClassNameW(hwnd, szClassName, 64))
     {
          if(_wcsicmp(szClassName, L"EXCEL7") == 0)
          {
               //Get AccessibleObject
               Excel::Window* pWindow = NULL;
               HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Excel::Window), (void**)&pWindow);
               if(hr == S_OK)
               {
                    //Excel object is now in pWindow pointer, from this you can obtain the document or application
                    Excel::_Application* pApp = NULL;
                    pWindow->get_Application(&pApp);
                    pWindow->Release();
               }
               return false;     // Stops enumerating through children
          }
     }
     return true;
}

Next we obtain our Excel::Window object through AccessibleObjectFromWindow:

//Get AccessibleObject
Excel::Window* pWindow = NULL;
HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Excel::Window), (void**)&pWindow);

That’s it! We now have our Excel::Window COM Object. From this object we can obtain the Excel::Application and Excel::Workbook objects, allowing us full interaction with the active document. So with just a few lines of code, we now have access to automate an Excel 2007 document.

Full source code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <oleacc.h>
#include "msexcel.h"

static BOOL EnumChildProc(HWND hwnd, LPARAM)
{
     WCHAR szClassName[64];
     if(GetClassNameW(hwnd, szClassName, 64))
     {
          if(_wcsicmp(szClassName, L"EXCEL7") == 0)
          {
               //Get AccessibleObject
               Excel::Window* pWindow = NULL;
               HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Excel::Window), (void**)&pWindow);
               if(hr == S_OK)
               {
                    //Excel object is now in pWindow pointer, from this you can obtain the document or application
                    Excel::_Application* pApp = NULL;
                    pWindow->get_Application(&pApp);
                    pWindow->Release();
               }
               return false;     // Stops enumerating through children
          }
     }
	 return true;
}
int main( int argc, CHAR* argv[])
{
     //The main window in Microsoft Excel has a class name of XLMAIN
     HWND excelWindow = FindWindow(L"XLMAIN", NULL);

     //Use the EnumChildWindows function to iterate through all child windows until we find _WwG
     EnumChildWindows(excelWindow, (WNDENUMPROC) EnumChildProc, (LPARAM)1);

     return 0;
}

Useful Links for this post:

• AccessibleObjectFromWindow Documentation
• Using Visual C++ to Automate Office
• EnumChildWindows Documentation

Key phrases: Accessing Excel 2007 COM object using AccessibleObjectFromWindow, Automating Excel 2007 with Microsoft Active Accessibility MSAA
Update: I’ve updated the full source to utilize get_Application. get_Document was in place previously, which was leftover from my Word source code.

After spending some time on this over the past few days, and sorting through the spotty documentation provided by Microsoft on Accessibility, I was able to get a handle on the COM object in Microsoft Word 2007.  It turns out to be pretty simple, and is actually in the documentation they provide here, but they don’t make it clear as day.  I intend to do that here.

First we obtain the hwnd of the Microsoft Word Process:

//The main window in Microsoft Word has a class name of OpusApp
HWND wordWindow = FindWindow(L"OpusApp", NULL);

We can then traverse the child windows until we find the one with classname _WwG:

//Use the EnumChildWindows function to iterate through all child windows until we find _WwG
EnumChildWindows(wordWindow, (WNDENUMPROC) EnumChildProc, (LPARAM)1);

static BOOL EnumChildProc(HWND hwnd, LPARAM)
{
     WCHAR szClassName[64];
     if(GetClassNameW(hwnd, szClassName, 64))
     {
          if(_wcsicmp(szClassName, L"_WwG") == 0)
          {
               //Get AccessibleObject
               Word::Window* pWindow = NULL;
               HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Word::Window), (void**)&pWindow);
               if(hr == S_OK)
               {
                    //Word object is now in pWindow pointer, from this you can obtain the document or application
                    Word::_Document* pDoc = NULL;
                    pWindow->get_Document(&pDoc);
               }
               return false;     // Stops enumerating through children
          }
     }
	 return true;
}

Next we obtain our Word::Window object through AccessibleObjectFromWindow:

Word::Window* pWindow = NULL;
HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Word::Window), (void**)&pWindow);

That’s it!  We now have our Word::Window COM Object.  From this object we can obtain the Word::Application and Word::Document objects, allowing us full interaction with the active document.  So with just a few lines of code, we now have access to automate a word 2007 document.

Full source code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <oleacc.h>
#include "msword.h"

static BOOL EnumChildProc(HWND hwnd, LPARAM)
{
	WCHAR szClassName[64];
	if(GetClassNameW(hwnd, szClassName, 64))
	{
		if(_wcsicmp(szClassName, L"_WwG") == 0)
		{
			//Get AccessibleObject
			Word::Window* pWindow = NULL;
			HRESULT hr = AccessibleObjectFromWindow(hwnd, OBJID_NATIVEOM, __uuidof(Word::Window), (void**)&pWindow);
			if(hr == S_OK)
			{
				//Word object is now in pWindow pointer, from this you can obtain the document or application
				Word::_Document* pDoc = NULL;
				pWindow->get_Document(&pDoc);
			}
			return false;     // Stops enumerating through children
		}
	}
	return true;
}
int main( int argc, CHAR* argv[])
{
	//The main window in Microsoft Word has a class name of OpusApp
	HWND wordWindow = FindWindow(L"OpusApp", NULL);

	//Use the EnumChildWindows function to iterate through all child windows until we find _WwG
	EnumChildWindows(wordWindow, (WNDENUMPROC) EnumChildProc, (LPARAM)1);

	return 0;
}

The logic to find the correct window can be changed for multiple instances of Word.  Also, you must have the Word type library imported to use the Word COM API.  We’ll leave those two for another topic on another date. Check back later in the week for a follow up post on how to access Microsoft Excel 2007 in the same manner.

Useful Links for this post:

• AccessibleObjectFromWindow Documentation
• Using Visual C++ to Automate Office
• EnumChildWindows Documentation

Key phrases: Accessing Word 2007 COM object using AccessibleObjectFromWindow, Automating Word 2007 with Microsoft Active Accessibility MSAA

Over the next few months, I will be interacting with Microsoft Access, Word, and Excel 2007 through Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in C++. As my journey progresses, I will be posting the neat little tricks and painful quirks that I run into along the way. To start, here are a few resources you can use to read up on Microsoft Active Accessibility.

• Microsoft’s documentation on IAccessible interface
• Sara Ford’s Weblog on Accessibility
• User Interface Element References for Control in Accessibility

Over the past 6 months, I used MSAA to develop against Microsoft Access 2003.  Although it was a painful process to get working, the end result gives quite a bit of flexibility in automating Access.  That being said, there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome, and Accessibility has definitely left many things to be desired.  In the next few weeks I will be posting about my first impressions of Accessibility and it’s inconsistencies.