SQL Excel

I'm getting an error when I try to run the SQL Excel add-in. The message is:

Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an active-x dll.........

Hi Randall

Sorry for this problem. Please can you provide more details on how you get this error.

SQL Excel will not run from outside of the Excel environment (Excel 2000 or more recent is fine). There are a few methods you can use from Excel/VBA but accessing from a different com excel addin will not work. And accessing from any other application will not work either. A prototype version of the addin is accessible from word and access but this is only under development at this point..

Sorry but the way the error mentions "host application" make this a bit unusual.
Please can you give some more details on how you get this error..

Thanks, Al

Al;

Thanks for your follow-up. I open Excel 2007 in Windows XP Pro, go to add-ins and hit the "SQL" icon next to "SQL Excel Toolkit" and the error window appears - unfortunately, I haven't been able to copy it so that I can paste it in this forum window. This "freezes" Excel and I have to wait several minutes for the hour glass to close OR use the Task Manager and "crash" Excel.

I hope that this helps you pin-down the problem. I am anxious to see what SQL Excel can do.

Thanks,

Randy Blinn

Hi Randy !

Thanks for the details.
That environment should be fine. It is a strange error though. I need to do a bit of research to see why this would happen.

If you have time, please could you look in the SQL Excel error log and send back the exact error.
You should find the error log in the following location on XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\sqlexcel

Sorry again for this problem. Will be back later today with some suggestions.

Thanks, Al

Al;

Contents of the error log:

08/21/08 16:12:40 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/21/08 16:12:58 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/21/08 16:13:27 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/21/08 16:14:42 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:24:40 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:26:46 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:28:09 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:32:09 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:46:06 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:47:07 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/22/08 10:48:57 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/23/08 13:11:24 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!!

Randy

Hi Randy

Just checking back with you for this.

I have been testing the addin again with Excel 2007 (am running it on Vista not XP Pro but still should be the same behaviour) and have not been able to reproduce the error so far.. I tried lowering the security settings for macros and also for Active X objects but have not been able to find a problem..

I am still investigating this. But I would like to know if there is a generic problem in your excel with "Non-modal forms"

Please can you try to load one of the non modal forms and see if it loads fine. I think it will be would like to be sure there is no general problem with your excel installation.

One of the non modal forms is the "Name A Range" form. To load it,
- you can right click on any cell and select "Name a Range".
- when the form loads, please can you click into the "refers to" box and make sure you are able to select a cell or range from there.
- you should be able to toggle out of the form and back into the cells/range and vice versa.

A better check would be to check this with a different excel addin but this is a basic check - to make sure non modal forms are not having problems in general.. Would be very strange but it is possible.

One other thing is please can you let me know which version of SQL Excel you have installed. You can see this by hitting the Coffe cup icon on the right of the SQL Excel toolbar.

Please let me know what you find out. Will be back on this issue. thanks, Al

Ok, am checking more for this issue and will be back.

Al;

Thanks again for all your effort!!

I was able to successfully name a range, set a named range and refer to the named range in a formula. Hopefully that satisfies the test that you requested above.

When I go to add-ins and click on the coffee cup, I get the same error. It starts with:

Run-Time Error 406:

Non-modal.........

However, if I go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs it reports the following:

1.2.0.43

The SQLExcel.msi is dated 6/1/2008 11:51PM and is 3,898KB

This was the most current copy of SQL Excel that I could find on your website. Maybe there is a newer version????

Thanks again for your help!!!

Randy

Hi Randy

Sorry again for these hassles. It is a weird problem this one.

Version 1.2 should work totally fine with Excel 2007.. But it is not the current version. Sorry to ask you to do this but please could you remove the addin completely (remove from the control panel and then delete the application folder - c: program files sql excel) and then reinstall from the download page (link for download.com page is on bottom of http://www.sqlexcel.net/Download.html)

I am not sure what is going on at this point but I am guessing something went wrong during installtion. I did find incidences of this error by looking on Google but nothing that normally would have any influence on SQL Excel running. But this might be wrong. I need a bit more time on this.

In any case, I want to get this sorted as soon as possible and if you remove the addin completely and then reinstall the current version it will be a step in the right direction.

Sorry again to ask you to do this but would like us to be on the same app version and also would like to exclude bad installion as the cause of the problem.

Thanks, Al

Al;

I went to the C|Net site that is linked to the "download now" icon and did the download. The version ID shown in Add/Remove Programs is the same as what I reported above and removed through Add/Remove Programs and deleted the Program Files Folder. I also compared the date/time/size on the download this morning vs the earlier one and they appear to be the same.

I can report that a couple of the icons on the add-in tool bar seem to be working now (maybe they were before, but I didn;t know it). The field glasses report that the version is up-to-date and the world takes me to the support page, so maybe that is progress.

It also seesm that the add-in is NOT locking Excel like it was before. After the initial error message (when I click on the SQL or coffee cup icon), it allows me to click on the other icons (where before it would leave the hour-glass on the screen for several minutes and I would need to crash Excel through Task Manager), but nothing happens.

I know that it is hard to troubleshoot issues blindfolded, so let me know if there is anything else that I can share with you to make it easier to track down the issue.

Thanks again for your assistance!

Randy

Thanks Randy.

I think we need to take the debugging out of the addin for a bit. We can try to reproduce the error in excel vba directly. This way we should get some better clues as to what is going on.

I will put some macros into a simple excel file and if you have the time today please try to run them and see if we can get non modal forms running directly from Excel (without using the addin).

Have to go out now but will be back later. Thanks for all the help debugging this. It is a big help. We will get this going eventually.

Thanks, Al

Al;

I really appreciate your help and will look for your updates. I'm on eastern time, so I made pack-it-in about 3PM EDT.

Randy

Hi Randy
That is fine no probs. Me too will pack it in soon.
I can only look at this stuff though over the weekend.. Sorry but have a day job...

I did make up a simple test sheet.
You can download it here http://www.sqlexcel.net/dload/SQL_Excel_Tests_August2008.xls

No rush on this at all so no need today.
But when you can.
-Please download the file (there are a few vba macros in it..)
- Go to the "NonModalForm" worksheet
- Hit the button there - it will try to load a non modal form (VBA one)

See if it works. This is a test for non modal form from vba.

Please let me know if the form loads ok or not.
Thanks and have a nice afternoon
Al

Al;

I was able to load the form - then I had TO ENABLE THE MACROS - Security Warning. Once I enable the security (to take the sheet out of a "read-only" status), I was able to switch between a cell on the worksheet and the Show Non Modal Form button (I would close the "dialog box" between each switch and it would successfully open a new dialog box).

Hopefully this will give you some additional hints.

Thanks again!

Randy

Hi Randy

Thanks again for going through all this. You have been a very big help in trying to fix the issue.

The fact the form load fine in non modal form is a big help. If is ok, I would suggest the next thing to try would be to install the latest version of the visual Basic 6 run-time libray.
The addin is built in vb6 and needs a good install of it. Not saying you have a bad install but there is no harm in installing the latest version (it is possible there is a corruption in one of the files).

The VB6 runtime library is a microsoft component. You can read about (and download load it) from the following page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887

When installing the library you should be closed out of all applications.

On a seperate note, I have been reading about an incidence of the same error on microsoft.com but it does not appear to give any clues on fixing this issue. I will check into this further but unfortunately wont be able to move forward on this till next weekend.. Sorry day job..

Please let me know if you are make any progress by putting on a new vb runtime..

Thanks and have a nice week
Al

Al;

I just downloaded and installed the VB6 patch per your instructions. I did a re-boot on the PC and when I went into SQLExcel I got a new error:

DAX ERROR - Access violation at address 07D1412E in Module 'ActiveQueryBuilderXcontrols.ocx.' Read of address 00000000.

However, I have not been able to recreate the error. Now when I run it I get the same error as I started with. The last couple of errors from the error log are:

08/24/08 13:01:00 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)

08/26/08 16:57:35 [SQLExcel]MStandardCode.QuickLoad, Error 406: Non-modal forms cannot be displayed in this host application from an ActiveX DLL, ActiveX Control, or Property Page. (QuickLoad)


The last one was timestamped the last time I tried to run the add-in (about 10 minutes ago.

I hope that some of this is helpful.

Thanks - have a great week!

Randy