Setting OnAction of custom menu item?

[Ed]

I'm using a Visual Basic app to open a workbook and set a custom menu in it.
It works okay, as far as I have it (thanks to much help from the Excel and
VB NG gurus!). The idea driving this is to remove all code from the
workbook - it's causing errors for my users.

Now I need to set the OnAction property of my menu items. Must OnAction
always refer to a macro in the workbook? Can I set OnAction to refer back
to a sub in the VB app? If this is possible, how would this look when
coded?

Ed

 

[Bob Phillips]

Ed,

It can't refer back to a VB App. Think about it, the VB app will run, create
the toolbar and then finish. The button could be clicked at any time after,
and there is no app to call back into.

You can run a macro in the same workbook, another workbook, and you could
even have a macro that is simply a bridge into a DLL if you so wanted, but
not your parent app as far as I can see.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Ed]

Thanks, Bob. Time for Plan B.

Ed

Ed,

It can't refer back to a VB App. Think about it, the VB app will run, create
the toolbar and then finish. The button could be clicked at any time after,
and there is no app to call back into.

You can run a macro in the same workbook, another workbook, and you could
even have a macro that is simply a bridge into a DLL if you so wanted, but
not your parent app as far as I can see.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Bob Phillips]

You could copy the macro into the workbook.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Ed]

Well, I was trying to present a workbook with no code in it. But I think I
can get away with some. Right now, though, I set OnAction in the Visual
Basic app as
.OnAction = "objWkbk.Sheet1!GetTIR"
where "objWkbk" is the Excel file opened by the VB app. But when I run the
macro in the workbook, I get the error "Can't find "objWkbk.Sheet1.xls".

The other thing I noticed is that, unlike double-clicking the icon on my
desktop, when the VB app opens this file, my Personal.xls doesn't open.
When I click a custom button tied to a macro in Personal, Personal has to
open and then the macro runs. But this macro is in this workbook - still I
wonder if something isn't messing with my VBA functions.

Ed

 

[Ed]

Found the error in this:

I set OnAction in the Visual
Basic app as
.OnAction = "objWkbk.Sheet1!GetTIR"
where "objWkbk" is the Excel file opened by the VB app. But when I run the
macro in the workbook, I get the error "Can't find "objWkbk.Sheet1.xls".

Of course not! objWkbk is the *object* reference, not the *filename
string*! D'oh!

So I changed it. Now I get an error '400', whatever that means. The macro
is there, and it does run when called. I just can't get this menu item to
call it.

Ed

 

[Bob Phillips]

Ed,

When you startup Excel from Automation, it will not load any files in
XLStart, so no Personal.xls, or anything else there. Same applies to
installed add-ins. It's a performance thing I guess.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Rob Bovey]

<<It's a performance thing I guess.>>

Hi Bob,

Actually it's a safety thing. If you're automating Excel on some
arbitrary user's desktop you don't know what the programs they're loading on
startup may do. If your program was using the default invisible instance of
Excel and one of the user's startup programs ran code that required UI
interaction (like clicking OK on a message box or something) you'd be locked
up with nowhere to go. There are lots of other scenarios where arbitrary
user applications loading on startup could really hose an automation
session, so MS designed it this way to avoid any of that from happening.

--
Rob Bovey, MCSE, MCSD, Excel MVP
Application Professionals
http://www.appspro.com/

* Please post all replies to this newsgroup *
* I delete all unsolicited e-mail responses *

 

[Bob Phillips]

Not tried this Ed, but if we just work it through. objWkbk is the object
variable in your VB app, which is totally meaningless to the commandbar and
its OnAction property. Running a macro in another workbook is in essence of
the form

Application.Run "myBook.xls'!myMacro"

so we need to build this up. All we have is an object and an implicit macro
name. We need the workbook name, which we can get from the object. So
something like

.OnAction = "'" & objWkbk.Name & "'!GetTIR"

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Bob Phillips]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that clarification, it makes sense. I worked on the premise that
Automation took a high performance hit, so MS mitigated as best they could.

As for locking up, done that many times running Excel on servers!

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Ed M]

Bob - sorry for the lat response. I had to bug out of work early and didn't
catch your message until now at home. I'll try to work through that first
thing Monday morning.

I left out (oops!) that I had tried substituting the string that held the
name of the workbook to open, but I'm not sure if I've got the syntax
correct, or if I'm using the wrong string (one with the file path vs. just
the file name). Another Monday morning action item. But let me also
clarify what you gave me:

.OnAction = "'" & objWkbk.Name & "'!GetTIR"

that's double-quote single-quote double quote & name & double-quote
single-quote !macro double-quote ? Are there any rules to the quotes? Or
do you just keep throwing them in until VB is happy?!? 8>\

Thanks for keeping with me on this.
Ed

 

[Bob Phillips]

Hi Ed,

Thought we had lost you<vbg>

You've got it right about the quotes, and yes I am doing it to keep VB
happy. The reason is that if the workbook name has embedded spaces, it will
error unless you enclose it in single quotes. So

myWorkboo.xls!GetTIR

is okay, but

my Workbook.xls!GetTir

is not and is fixed by

'my Workbook.xls'getTIR

So you can see that it is, in my favourite phrase, defensive programming, in
case of embedded spaces. The double quotes are just to enclose the single
quotes in building the string.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Ed]

Got it, Bob! Thanks for all your help. I renamed the file so it has no
spaces in it, but that wasn't what did it. Apparently, all OnAction wanted
was "Sheet1.GetTIR" - it didn't want the file, probably because that's the
file it was looking in anyway.

Whew! Glad that's over. And glad to have people who'll help like this.
Ed