VSTO Add-In, COM, and AutoIt

[seadoggie01]

Background: I have a project I've been working on at work. It involves getting an Excel document from an email, extracting data from the Excel document, inputting it into another Excel document, and uploading it to our server through ImageNow/Perceptive content. I made an AutoIt script that will do most of this with OutlookEx, VBA/VSTO Add-in (for the excel portion), and many hours. When I was exploring sharing data between Excel VBA and the VSTO Add-in, I found that I needed to make a COM class ... (to interface between VBA and .Net). I've been using COM in AutoIt for running my VBA macros ($Application.Run and $Workbook.Sheet(1)), so it got me wondering...

 

Can I create a COM object of my own and call it through AutoIt? If so, do I need to register it with Windows or can I reference the location of the dll to avoid registration?

Edited August 13, 2019 by seadoggie01

[water]

As you have already used the OutlookEX to do the mail part, why not use the Excel UDF to do the Excel part?

[seadoggie01]

I tried, but it's difficult and slow. The code is getting out of hand as the Excel documents that I'm trying to extract the data from are created from a bunch of different templates and often have multiple sheets with data that I don't need. With the add-in, I can easily throw it back to the user to select the necessary data if I have to. Also, because (IMHO) it's easier in .Net than AutoIt.

[water]

I'm sure everything that can be done using .Net can be done with with AutoIt as well. With the Excel UDF it is easier as the functions are wrappers to hide complexity and to handle errors. If the UDF is used in a sensible way then it is fast as well.

Post an example and I will provide some AutoIt code

[seadoggie01]

Actually, I found a (nearly) perfect solution. I failed to realize that you implemented (or even that Excel allowed) ? and * in the Find dialog / _Excel_RangeFind(). By searching for cells matching 10 characters, I can find the bank account numbers. It is beautiful!  And, as an added bonus, it only finds visible cells, so anything filtered is ignored. I ♥️ _Excel!

 

I am still interested in finding out if COM objects from VB.Net are register-able, but just out of curiosity now.

[water]

15 minutes ago, seadoggie01 said:

I am still interested in finding out if COM objects from VB.Net are register-able, but just out of curiosity now.

 

Never used it myself but could be what you are looking for: