Reference for using Labview with Excel (activeX)??

[Melissa Niesen]

Could anyone point me to a good reference (online, book, etc.) that explains
how using Excel in LabVIEW through ActiveX works? I can fiddle with the
example files all I want, but I am not familiar with ActiveX and it seems
so different than the basic LabVIEW style that I don't thoroughly understand
what is going on.

Thanks,
Melissa Niesen
Fisher Controls

[Hans]

First of all LabVIEW is a great choice when a lot of different hardware and
software has to be integrated into one system. ActiveX, DLL, CIN, TCP/IP,
Serial, GBIP etc are all built in ........

To use ActiveX with LV almost no knowlwdge about how ActiveX realy work is
needed. The actual ActiveX control's Methods, Properties and Events are
known to the Windows system when the ActiveX component is installed, and
from LV they can all be selected from pop-up menus......but here the hard
part my start: How to use Methods, Properties and Events. This documentation
of complex ActiveX controls are often missing or complicated to understand.
But for the Microsoft Office Applications we have some very good tools:

1) The online Help system: In Your case Help for Microsoft Excel Visual
Basic wich can be installed with Excel. Wireing and selecting a Method or
Property to an Excel control/application node will give you help on each
Method or Property. From this Help screen you can select the index and get
an overview of the Excel objects and how they are used.

2) The Excel Macro recorder: When you know the action LV shall perform with
Excel open the Excel application, start the macro recorder and do exactly
the same actions you want LV to do (not to many things at a time), stop the
macro recorder and open the macro for editing and all the activeX calls to
Excell for this task will be there!!!! Implement the same in LV with the
calls. I must admit that there a few confusing things with this method: The
Macro sometimes produce unecessarely code, use of 'Item' is confusing,
'range is often more usefull than 'selection' used by the macro and some
more.....

I have used these methods primerely to send an format information from LV to
Word, and think no more documentation is necessary.

Good Luck

Hans �hra



Melissa Niesen <#melissa.niesen@frco.com#> wrote in message
news:38a2d4af@newsgroups.ni.com...
>
> Could anyone point me to a good reference (online, book, etc.) that
explains
> how using Excel in LabVIEW through ActiveX works? I can fiddle with the
> example files all I want, but I am not familiar with ActiveX and it seems
> so different than the basic LabVIEW style that I don't thoroughly
understand
> what is going on.
>
> Thanks,
> Melissa Niesen
> Fisher Controls

[andreaarrow@my-deja.com]

I have to agree with you that LabVIEW is great because of all the
capability and most of all because is really open. But what Melissa
says is really true, the most difficult part is to understand very well
the ActiveX server that you are controlling (that is you need to know
all the method, property, objects and how they interact).
Nevertheless there is a very cool example that allows you to use the
powerfull of activeX but without programming with activeX, it's base on
Macro and is very easy to use. You'll find more info at
http://www.easymacro.com
My best Regards
Arrow

In article <880omm$ala$1@news.ffi.no>,
"Hans �hra" wrote:
> First of all LabVIEW is a great choice when a lot of different
hardware and
> software has to be integrated into one system. ActiveX, DLL, CIN,
TCP/IP,
> Serial, GBIP etc are all built in ........
>
> To use ActiveX with LV almost no knowlwdge about how ActiveX realy
work is
> needed. The actual ActiveX control's Methods, Properties and Events
are
> known to the Windows system when the ActiveX component is installed,
and
> from LV they can all be selected from pop-up menus......but here the
hard
> part my start: How to use Methods, Properties and Events. This
documentation
> of complex ActiveX controls are often missing or complicated to
understand.
> But for the Microsoft Office Applications we have some very good
tools:
>
> 1) The online Help system: In Your case Help for Microsoft Excel
Visual
> Basic wich can be installed with Excel. Wireing and selecting a
Method or
> Property to an Excel control/application node will give you help on
each
> Method or Property. From this Help screen you can select the index
and get
> an overview of the Excel objects and how they are used.
>
> 2) The Excel Macro recorder: When you know the action LV shall
perform with
> Excel open the Excel application, start the macro recorder and do
exactly
> the same actions you want LV to do (not to many things at a time),
stop the
> macro recorder and open the macro for editing and all the activeX
calls to
> Excell for this task will be there!!!! Implement the same in LV with
the
> calls. I must admit that there a few confusing things with this
method: The
> Macro sometimes produce unecessarely code, use of 'Item' is confusing,
> 'range is often more usefull than 'selection' used by the macro and
some
> more.....
>
> I have used these methods primerely to send an format information
from LV to
> Word, and think no more documentation is necessary.
>
> Good Luck
>
> Hans �hra
>
> Melissa Niesen <#melissa.niesen@frco.com#> wrote in message
> news:38a2d4af@newsgroups.ni.com...
> >
> > Could anyone point me to a good reference (online, book, etc.) that
> explains
> > how using Excel in LabVIEW through ActiveX works? I can fiddle
with the
> > example files all I want, but I am not familiar with ActiveX and it
seems
> > so different than the basic LabVIEW style that I don't thoroughly
> understand
> > what is going on.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Melissa Niesen
> > Fisher Controls
>
>


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