VB6 Activex Control Error on IE8 Tab Switch

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

We are facing VB6 Activex control issue in multi-tab scenario of IE8.
System in context is a classic ASP web application. There are multiple VB6 ActiveX controls , which implements the UI. Classic ASP pages loads these VB6 ActiveX controls.

Problem scenario : Load one of such ASP page on one tab of IE8,immediately switch to another tab of IE8.
The Activex control fails on the previous tab. It throws an "invalid procedure called" error.
On debug we found that the actual method fails is SetFocus method of one of the control in ActiveX.

It looks like this is the problem with Windows handler, Activex control is looking for the control in the current active tab, and it fails to find the same.

Any solution,pointers would be helpful. Thanks .

Posted 22-Nov-10 0:04am

Member 201298

Add a Solution

3 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 1 · 2010-11-22T04:53:00

Solution 1

The solution sounds rather obvious. Your code has to make sure that it finds the correct control before setting focus on it. If your code is looking at the current window, it shouldn't find the control, in which case, it should do nothing. It sounds like your code is assuming that control is always there and always visible.

Posted 22-Nov-10 4:53am

Dave Kreskowiak

Comments

Member 201298 23-Nov-10 2:33am

Definitely SetFocus and not finding the control on the active tab is the problem. But avoiding set focus does not seems to be the solution. If we do not set focus while the ActiveX control is getting loaded ,then when should we do that? The problem is not just with SetFocus , but also with other API/methods which is trying to find the control on the active window.

One of the logical solution looks like when the web page is loading , very first thing , get the current window/tab handler. And then while loading the ActivX control pass that window handler, and let the Activex use that Window handler for rendering the controls and also for setting focus.
Are there any good references which demonstrates how to programatically get/use windows handlers for the ActiveX control and also how to programatically control Internet explorer V8 wndow/tab handling. Thanks

Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 2 · 2010-11-23T01:56:00

A problem you have is that you're assuming that the browser is the active window when your page loads. That's simply not the case. A user can start loading your page and switch windows to something else by the time your page loads and starts executing.

You cannot use the "current window" to look for controls. Why are you not using the normal VB6 method of:

TextBox1.SetFocus

vidyabalu · Answer 3 · 2011-04-29T02:05:00

Hi,
Even i work on Active X.
I am also facing the same issue of bringing a IE tab to focus with IE 8.
We were using IE 6 all the while and recently moved to IE 8.
For IE 6 EnumChildWindows API took care of traversing through IE tabs and getting the windows handler for all active windows. Since IE 6 was not mutlitabbed browser this issue never came up.
Is there any similar API for IE 8 or any multitabbed browser. Else any sample code or function which you can provide me so that this issue can be addressed
Any response will be of gr8 help!
Thanks,
Vidya

VB6 Activex Control Error on IE8 Tab Switch

3 solutions

Solution 1

Solution 2

Solution 3

Add your solution here

Preview 0