Use the VBA debugger to analyze SAP GUI Scripting objects at runtime

Yesterday I discussed with a friend of mine about different methods of analyzing SAP GUI Scripting programs at runtime. One very easy method, to understand and to see where the attributes or methods are in the SAP GUI Scripting hierarchy, is the Visual Basic for Application (VBA) debugger and its watch window.

You can use VBA from a lot of applications, e.g. Microsoft Office Word or Excel. Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA IDE. At first you must choose the menu item Tools, References and search for the file C:\Program Files\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\sapfewse.ocx, to bind the SAP GUI Scripting API to your VBA program.

Now you can use the following program to check the possibilities:

Option Explicit

Sub Test()

  Dim SapGuiAuto As Object
  Dim Application As SAPFEWSELib.GuiApplication
  Dim Connection As SAPFEWSELib.GuiConnection
  Dim Session As SAPFEWSELib.GuiSession
  Dim Window As SAPFEWSELib.GuiModalWindow
  Dim Coll As SAPFEWSELib.GuiCollection
  
  Set SapGuiAuto = GetObject("SAPGUI")
  If Not IsObject(SapGuiAuto) Then
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  Set Application = SapGuiAuto.GetScriptingEngine()
  If Not IsObject(Application) Then
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  Set Connection = Application.Connections(0)
  If Not IsObject(Connection) Then
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  Set Session = Connection.Sessions(0)
  If Not IsObject(Session) Then
    Exit Sub
  End If
  
  Set Window = Session.FindById("wnd[1]")
  If IsObject(Window) Then
    Set Coll = Window.DumpState("")
    Stop
  End If
  
  Set Coll = Nothing
  Set Window = Nothing
  Set Session = Nothing
  Set Connection = Nothing
  Set Application = Nothing
  Set SapGuiAuto = Nothing

End Sub

Execute it in debug mode with F5, it stops at line 35. Choose the variable Coll and add it to your watch window. Open the GuiCollection in the watch window and view the complete hierarchy of the object and the values of the attributes, like in the following picture.

The VBA debugger offers many possibilities to analyze SAP GUI Scripting objects at runtime.