Stefan Schnell

January 4, 2016 1 minute read

SAP GUI Scripting Changes Between SAP GUI 7.40 PL 5 and PL7

Hello community,

since four days offers SAP a new patch level of the SAP GUI for Windows. With this patch level 7 SAP offers also a new version of the SAP GUI Scripting API (sapfewse.ocx). There are some notable changes:

The following controls

$CLSID_SAPFEWSELib_GuiListControl = GUID$("{CC75EA97-3DB1-4BDF-9791-89D09B1800A0}")
$CLSID_SAPFEWSELib_GuiInputControl = GUID$("{31233701-DF39-49F7-A641-16CAB0C9C5F0}")

are changed to

$CLSID_SAPFEWSELib_GuiComboBoxControl = GUID$("{CC75EA97-3DB1-4BDF-9791-89D09B1800A0}")
$CLSID_SAPFEWSELib_GuiInputFieldControl = GUID$("{31233701-DF39-49F7-A641-16CAB0C9C5F0}")

Also the interfaces from

$IID_SAPFEWSELib_ISapListControlTarget = GUID$("{6E824989-726A-45EE-9FF0-52DC1A41D8D4}")
$IID_SAPFEWSELib_ISapInputControlTarget = GUID$("{D2C7FEC7-052E-4BA3-BE44-526D9E0925C4}")

$IID_SAPFEWSELib_ISapComboBoxControlTarget = GUID$("{6E824989-726A-45EE-9FF0-52DC1A41D8D4}")
$IID_SAPFEWSELib_ISapInputFieldControlTarget = GUID$("{D2C7FEC7-052E-4BA3-BE44-526D9E0925C4}")

It seems that the GuiListControl is now renamed to a GuiComboBoxControl with different methods.

As far as I can see the methods

SetSelectionID <1> (In i As Long<0>)
GetSelectionID <2> () As Long
GetSelectionText <3> () As WString
GetTextFromID <4> (In idVal As Long<0>) As WString
SetInputControlText <5> (In ISapListControlTarget As WString<0>) As Integer
GetInputControlText <6> () As WString
SetComboboxText <7> (In Text As WString<0>)
GetLabelText <9> () As WString

doesn’t exists anymore and the method

FireSelected <6> ()

is new.

It is the same with GuiInputControl and now GuiInputFieldControl.
As far as I can see the methods

SetInputControlText <1> (In ISapInputControlTarget As WString<0>) As Integer
GetInputControlText <2> () As WString
GetLabelText <4> () As WString
GetButtonTooltip <5> () As WString
GetNumberOfEntries <6> () As Long
GetHistoryEntryText <7> (In ISapInputControlTarget As Long<0>) As WString
IsHistoryOpend <8> () As Integer
GetSelectedHistoryItem <9> () As WString

doesn’t exists anymore.

If you use this controls in your SAP GUI Scripting programs, be careful if you update to PL7.

Hint: I detect the GuiListControl class at the SAP GUI 7.30 PL6, you can find more information here. The class has never been documented. The renamed class GuiComboBoxControl is actually also not completely documented. The GuiInputControl class has never been documented too and the renamed class GuiInputFieldControl is actually also not completely documented too.

Cheers
Stefan

9 Comments

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Michael Burnett

January 5, 2016 at 5:15 pm

Hello Stefan,

We recently brought in a system running 64-bit Office and can't figure out how to configure VBA to open a connection to SAP. From the content of your blog posts, it appears that you very likely have some knowledge to share with the community on this topic. Any help will be much appreciated.

Here are some snippets (functional in the 32-bit environment)...

Public SAPguiAPP As SAPFEWSELib.GuiApplication

Public Connection As SAPFEWSELib.GuiConnection

Public Session As SAPFEWSELib.GuiSession

If IsObject(SAPguiAPP) Then

Set SAPguiAPP = CreateObject("Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1") **

End If

If IsObject(Connection) Then

Set Connection = SAPguiAPP.OpenConnectionByConnectionString(IP_Address)

End If

If IsObject(Session) Then

Set Session = Connection.Children(0)

End If

** run-time error 429...ActiveX component can't create object

References clicked...

Visual Basic for Applications

Microsoft Excel 16.0 Object Library

OLE Automation

Microsoft Office 16.0 Object Library

SAP GUI Scripting API

Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 6.1 Library

If you do indeed decide to create a blog post or document on this topic or know somebody that will be able to help us, please let me know by responding to this post (I am now following it).

Thank you very much for your consideration,

Mike

Stefan Schnell

Blog Post Author

January 5, 2016 at 8:20 pm

Hello Mike,

I think this thread answers your question. In my opinion it should be possible to use SAP GUI Scripting API inside 64-bit VBA but I never tried it. If you want to use your code inside x86 und x64 note this thread and for more information this thread.

Let us know your results.

Cheers

Stefan

Michael Burnett

January 5, 2016 at 8:27 pm

Thank you very much for the lead Stefan. I truly appreciate it!

Mike

Michael Burnett

January 5, 2016 at 10:05 pm

Hi Stefan,

I implemented Emmanuel Carabott's registry hack, rebooted, and tried to login to SAP from Excel VBA. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the 429 run-time error at...

Set SAPguiAPP = CreateObject("Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1")

Here is what my registry currently looks like.

One thing that didn't go as per the instructions...

When I went to add the new key under HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Classes\AppID\ the key with the name of the COM object GUID was already there (and already contained the DllSurrogate string). It was if if the key I added under HKey_Classes_Root\Wow6432Node\AppID\ was automatically replicated.

To be certain, I deleted everything and did it again, paying close attention to which HKey area I was in. Again, the key was automatically added to the HKey_Local_Machine area. Not sure if that would cause this not to work.

As per your thread, is the declaration...

Public SAPguiAPP As SAPFEWSELib.GuiApplication

appropriate in a 64-bit VBA environment?

Thanks!

Mike

Here is my current reference setup...I don't think the ActiveX DO reference is necessary...I was just trying a few things.

Stefan Schnell

Blog Post Author

January 6, 2016 at 4:32 am

Hello Mike,

you modify the wdtfuncs.ocx library, but this library isn't SAP GUI Scripting API with the ID Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1. What do you want exactly to do? Do you want to use SAP GUI Scripting API or the ActiveX controls of librfc in the context of VBA 64 bit?

If you want to use SAP GUI Scripting API search for Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1 to find the correct CLSID.

I check the SAP GUI Scripting API and the first step works. I set the registry entries as I described and I can instantiate the SAP GUI Scripting API inside VBA 64 bit.

Here a snippet of my debugging perspective of VBA IDE inside Excel x64:

It is generally important and good to know that it is basically possible to use x86 SAP GUI Scripting API inside x64 applications.

It is not possible to reference to the library inside the x64 VBA IDE, so you must use the Object type for an x86 ActiveX library inside an x64 VBA IDE.

Let us know your results.

Cheers

Stefan

Stefan Schnell

Blog Post Author

January 6, 2016 at 8:13 pm

Hello Mike,

in my case a normal script works without any problems in 64-bit VBA with the actual SAP GUI for Windows:

Sub Test()

  Set SapGuiAuto = GetObject("SAPGUI")
  Set appl = SapGuiAuto.GetScriptingEngine
  Set connection = appl.Children(0)
  Set session = connection.Children(0)

  session.FindById("wnd[0]/tbar[0]/btn[3]").Press

End Sub

It seems that is not necessary to modify the registry for this kind of programs.

I build a new environment without any modifications on the registry and the following code works without any problems in 64-bit VBA:

Sub Test()

  Set SapGuiAuto = GetObject("SAPGUI")
  Set appl = SapGuiAuto.GetScriptingEngine
  Set Connection = appl.Children(0)
  Set session = Connection.Children(0)
  Set info = session.info
  Debug.Print info.Program

End Sub

But if I call

Set SAPguiAPP = CreateObject("Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1")

I get the same runtime 429 error as you. With the modification in the registry I can instantiate the class, but I can't call the method OpenConnection or OpenConnectionByConnectionString successfully.

Cheers

Stefan

Michael Burnett

January 7, 2016 at 6:15 pm

Thanks Stefan!

I found your other helpful link here which I meshed with your recommendations above to come up with this...

Sub SAP_OpenSessionFromLogon()

Dim WSHShell

#If VBA7 Then

Dim SapGuiAuto As Object

#Else

Dim SapGuiAuto As SAPFEWSELib.GuiApplication

#End If

Dim Appl

Dim Connection

Dim Session

Shell ("C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe")

Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Do Until WSHShell.AppActivate("SAP Logon ")

Sleep 1000

Loop

Set WSHShell = Nothing

Set SapGuiAuto = GetObject("SAPGUI")

Set Appl = SapGuiAuto.GetScriptingEngine

'Set Connection = Appl.Children(0) ' this command did not work...RTE 614 "The enumerator of the collection cannot find en [sic] element with the specified index"

Set Connection = Appl.OpenConnection("BLP on Windows 2012", True)

Set Session = Connection.Children(0)

Session.FindById("wnd[0]").Maximize

Session.FindById("wnd[0]/usr/txtRSYST-MANDT").Text = "100"

Session.FindById("wnd[0]/usr/txtRSYST-BNAME").Text = "mburnett"

Session.FindById("wnd[0]/usr/pwdRSYST-BCODE").Text = "password"

Session.FindById("wnd[0]/usr/txtRSYST-LANGU").Text = "EN"

Session.FindById("wnd[0]").SendVKey 0

Session.SendCommand ("/nse16n")

'e.g. Pull some table data

Set Session = Nothing

Connection.CloseSession ("ses[0]")

Set Connection = Nothing

Set SapGuiAuto = Nothing

End Sub

It works well, but I'm concerned with shelling this instead of having it run as it an instance within Excel. It might create confusion/problems when a user has active sessions running in the SAP logon 740 environment. I opened a few sessions and ran the above code and all my existing instances remained open, but again I think it would be worth investigating how to get SAP to run within Excel without having to shell it (like we can in 32-bit Office using SAPguiAPP = CreateObject("Sapgui.ScriptingCtrl.1")).

Can you think of any drawbacks of using the shell commands to get a session going versus running SAP directly within the Office environment?

Again, thanks very much for your help. You definitely helped me get over this hump!

Mike

Former Member

February 2, 2016 at 2:28 pm

Thanks Stefan. Very useful code!

Gary Michalske

October 22, 2020 at 12:39 pm

I know this post is very old but were any of you ever able to get the OpenConnection method to work with Excel 64-bit VBA?

SAP GUI Scripting Changes Between SAP GUI 7.40 PL 5 and PL7

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