Excel, COM+ and Web Services
 

Hi,

We have an existing COM+ infrastructure for Excel reporting. Basically a
middle tier via OLAP connects to the SQL datasource, grabs data, applies
logic and returns it to Excel for presentation. The middle-tier is written in
VB6, with SQL Server 2000 SP3 and we are running Excel 2003.

Currently, any machine running reports needs the COM+ components installed
and running locally. In the long-term we want to have all the COM+ components
running on a single, centralized reporting server to reduce load on the
client PCs. The client PCs are running either Windows Server 2003 (terminal
services) or Windows XP.

To kick this off, we are looking at a simple web service. We enabled SOAP on
one of the COM+ object (in IIS) and are trying to access it remotely. We are
loosely following a MSDN sample but it is not Excel specific.

1. When we browse to the web service, we can view the XML definitions of the
COM+ components. This gives us the impression that on the server side the web
service is at least running. We made no code changes and are just trying to
access the existing (and functioning) COM+ components remotely.

2. From the client side (Excel) we are trying to instantiate with the
following:

Set objMyObj =
GetObject("soap:wsdl=http://server/AppName/compcomponent.cTest.soap?WSDL")

where compcomponent.cTest is the object we're trying to create. We receive
an automation error during the attempt.

3. We have not installed or referenced anything special in the Excel report.
I believe this is where we're missing something. A package we need to install
or something to that effect?

Can anyone point out any glaring mistakes here or can point us in the right
direction?

Thanks in advance.

Excel, COM+ and Web Services
 

I apologize. There appears to be a more relevant forum I can post this
question in.

"YCI" wrote:

Hi,

We have an existing COM+ infrastructure for Excel reporting. Basically a
middle tier via OLAP connects to the SQL datasource, grabs data, applies
logic and returns it to Excel for presentation. The middle-tier is written in
VB6, with SQL Server 2000 SP3 and we are running Excel 2003.

Currently, any machine running reports needs the COM+ components installed
and running locally. In the long-term we want to have all the COM+ components
running on a single, centralized reporting server to reduce load on the
client PCs. The client PCs are running either Windows Server 2003 (terminal
services) or Windows XP.

To kick this off, we are looking at a simple web service. We enabled SOAP on
one of the COM+ object (in IIS) and are trying to access it remotely. We are
loosely following a MSDN sample but it is not Excel specific.

1. When we browse to the web service, we can view the XML definitions of the
COM+ components. This gives us the impression that on the server side the web
service is at least running. We made no code changes and are just trying to
access the existing (and functioning) COM+ components remotely.

2. From the client side (Excel) we are trying to instantiate with the
following:

Set objMyObj =
GetObject("soap:wsdl=http://server/AppName/compcomponent.cTest.soap?WSDL")

where compcomponent.cTest is the object we're trying to create. We receive
an automation error during the attempt.

3. We have not installed or referenced anything special in the Excel report.
I believe this is where we're missing something. A package we need to install
or something to that effect?

Can anyone point out any glaring mistakes here or can point us in the right
direction?

Thanks in advance.