Excel Functions from ADE

The Issue

Excel spreadsheet functions when invoked from an ADE Application through IIS seem to hang when ADE tries to bind to an instance of an Excel COM Object. This issue seems to arise because the user invoking Excel COM Objects (by default NETWORK SERVICES) does not have enough permissions. Two possible solutions are provided below for this issue.

The Fix

1. Create a new standard user. E.g. ExcelRunner with a password.
2. Set the Excel COM Objects to be invoked by this newly created user instead of the default Launching User.
   1. Launch DCOM Config: Start → Administrative Tools → Component Services → Computers → My Computer → DCOM Config.
      • Note: If you are running ADE 32-Bit on a Windows 64-Bit machine run the command Start → Run → mmc comexp.msc /32
   2. Right click on Microsoft Excel Application and then on Properties.
   3. Click on the Identity tab.
   4. Choose "This user." as the account to run Excel Applications and type in the username and password of the new account.
   5. Click OK.
3. Give the new user Read/Write permission on the folder with the Excel file.

Alternative Fix

1. Navigate to the folder given below:
   • Windows 64 Bit: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\
   • Windows 32 Bit: C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\
2. Create directory Desktop
3. Give the NETWORK SERVICES user Read/Write permission on the Desktop folder.
4. Give the NETWORK SERVICES user Read/Write permission on the AppData folder in the same directory.
5. Give the NETWORK SERVICES user Read/Write permission on the folder with the Excel file.

See Also

• Excel spreadsheets read and write
• Functions To Read Excel Worksheets
• Functions to Write Data to Excel Worksheets
• COM Integration