Using IBM I series PCOMM on autoit3_x64.exe

[sho]

Hi

I have previously written a script to create object and set connection name to Session A, as follow:

$ops = ObjCreate("PCOMM.autECLPS")

$ops.setconnectionbyname("A") 

$ops.searchtext("text to search for") 

The above went well when I executed the script using AutoIt3.exe

However when I execute it using AutoIt3_x64.exe, it failed as it was unable to create object. 

Basically, I am trying to search for a specific text on the IBM iseries screen using the function $ops.searchtext("text to search for"). 

However I am just unable to get this to work using AutoIt3_x64.exe

Is there any alternative method? I have tried winexist("Session A", "text to search for"), but it is also not working. 

I am using AutoIt3_x64.exe as it is more stable than AutoIt3.exe, as AutoIt3.exe keeps crashing after performing multiple loops. 

 

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

[jchd]

The DLL used to deal with this object doesn't seem to be available in X64.  You can't invoke X86 DLL from a X64 program, so stick to X86.

AutoIt X86 executables shouldn't crash more than X64.  You must have a severe issue in your script, like unwanted recursion or the like.  Different stack sizes probably explain why it crashes in X86 more than X64.  Post a short script showing the issue for actual help, as well as the crash reason.

[sho]

4 minutes ago, jchd said:

The DLL used to deal with this object doesn't seem to be available in X64.  You can't invoke X86 DLL from a X64 program, so stick to X86.

AutoIt X86 executables shouldn't crash more than X64.  You must have a severe issue in your script, like unwanted recursion or the like.  Different stack sizes probably explain why it crashes in X86 more than X64.  Post a short script showing the issue for actual help, as well as the crash reason.

Hi jchd, thank you very much for replying. 

Basically the part where using X86 will crash is the excel range write after performing more than 300 while loops:

While $ops.searchtext("text to search for") = false

      Sleep(10000)

 Wend

_Excel_RangeWrite($oWorkbook, $oWorkbook.Activesheet, "Pass" , "A3")

 

I am doing a while loop to check for a status update on the Iseries screen. However, sometimes it can take up to a few hundred loops before the required text is found. No issue when it is less than 300 loops or when using X64.

Repeated the test on a simple text file instead of Iseries application, the same problem will occur when it is more than 300 loops. 

By the way though I have found an alternative to get the screen text (by copy all, clipget, stringinstr), it is not the ideal way. Was hoping $ops.searchtext could work. But seems like I am currently stuck between get $ops.searchtext to work or getting while loop to work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

[jchd]

Very strange.  What does the crash box say?  And is it actually the Excel write that crashes?  Which version are you using?  There have been a number of reports that some versions of the Excel UDF have similar issues.

Excel UDF emergency team in route.

Edited October 4, 2019 by jchd

[water]

Can you please post the full script you are running?
And please post the error message/crash message you get.

• Which version of Excel do you run? 32 or 64 bit?
• Which version of AutoIt do you run?
• Which version of Windows do you run?

[BigDaddyO]

Do you need to read from the excel file, or are you just creating it from your script?

I used to have lots of problems with Excel crashing on large reports.  even when I used the excel .com object directly without the UDF so I created a function to create Excel .xml files using FileWrite.  I then just use excel to open that file and saveAs .xlsx

https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/189496-create-excel-xml-file-with-multiple-worksheets/

It's not very user friendly and it's currently setup for multiple spreadsheets, but it's an option.

 

[sho]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:26 PM, jchd said:

Very strange.  What does the crash box say?  And is it actually the Excel write that crashes?  Which version are you using?  There have been a number of reports that some versions of the Excel UDF have similar issues.

Excel UDF emergency team in route.

V3.3.14.5

The error box basically just displayed the line of the script which contain the rangewrite function. And whenever I traced it back, it is always the rangewrite right after the while loop. 

[sho]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:35 PM, water said:

Can you please post the full script you are running?
And please post the error message/crash message you get.

• Which version of Excel do you run? 32 or 64 bit?
• Which version of AutoIt do you run?
• Which version of Windows do you run?

Sorry, I would very much love to paste the entire script here, but it is in my organisation pc and I can't access the Internet on it, so I am typing the section of the script which the rangewrite failure have occurred based on the previous observations. The excel is ver 14, 64bit, professional plus 2010.

AutoIt version is 3.3.14.5 

Win OS is win7. 

[sho]

On 10/4/2019 at 8:35 PM, BigDaddyO said:

Do you need to read from the excel file, or are you just creating it from your script?

I used to have lots of problems with Excel crashing on large reports.  even when I used the excel .com object directly without the UDF so I created a function to create Excel .xml files using FileWrite.  I then just use excel to open that file and saveAs .xlsx

https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/189496-create-excel-xml-file-with-multiple-worksheets/

It's not very user friendly and it's currently setup for multiple spreadsheets, but it's an option.

 

Neither. I am basically doing a while loop to search on the IBM I series screen for a specific text, then write to excel only when the text is found. The excel file is a simple blank excel with only some headers, nothing too special or too huge in filesize. Is just that the while loops can run up to a few hundred, for an hour or more. 

[water]

AFAIK 64-bit Office isn't very reliable and widely used.
As the Excel part is quite simple I suggest you write the data to a simple file (could be CSV format) and then use Excel separately to process this data.