Blue Prism Excel VBO Given key not in dictionary error

Question

I have two processes that operate on a single Excel file.

The first process creates the Excel instance and opens/creates and activates a workbook and worksheet. The second process makes entries to the spreadsheet. The first process passes the Excel handle as an output parameter to the second process but, when the second process attempts to interact with the workbook, a "Given key not in dictionary" error occurs.

I speculate that the handle is just a means for a process to distinguish between Excel instances to which it is connected and the second process needs to connect to the Excel instance opened by the first process. The Excel VBO contains Attach and Attach Worksheet pages that may provide this functionality, but I cannot find any instructions or documentation for the Excel VBO. There may be more than one Excel instance open and I'm not sure how to refer to the correct instance.

Is my assumption that I need to connect the second process to the Excel instance opened by the first process correct? If so, how do I do this? If not, can anyone tell me what causes the dictionary error and how I can address it?

Answer 1

Hi, the way you described your code the behavior is expected this is because handles are kept track of internally in memory by a particular instance of the MS Excel VBO. They are not shared between instances of the VBO. In your case, the instance of the MS Excel VBO that holds the handle for the instance of Excel you're attempting to interact with is purged from memory at the end of the process.

your assumption itself is correct, but you might want to consider a slight re-design to your processes. It's unlikely that the optimal design of a given Blue Prism process would open an instance of Excel in one process, and not interact with it until another process.