dll creation from java source

[Mac]

All-

Am afraid I already know the answer to this, but...: am interested in
compiling a set of java classes into .dll form to be later accessed
from MS' VBA. I realize this is likely making life much harder than
it needs to, but my deployment options are extremely limited, and
having an "externally" running application outside the IT-approved
norm (vs something "trusted"/"internal" like Excel) is currently a no-
go.

Is there any way to bridge the gap and allow this accessibility?

Appreciate any help/suggestions.

Mac

 

[Jeff Higgins]

All-

Am afraid I already know the answer to this, but...: am interested in
compiling a set of java classes into .dll form to be later accessed
from MS' VBA. I realize this is likely making life much harder than
it needs to, but my deployment options are extremely limited, and
having an "externally" running application outside the IT-approved
norm (vs something "trusted"/"internal" like Excel) is currently a no-
go.

Is there any way to bridge the gap and allow this accessibility?

Web service or some VBA/Java bridging package.
Either way you'll have to get it through IT administrators.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Am afraid I already know the answer to this, but...: am interested in
compiling a set of java classes into .dll form to be later accessed
from MS' VBA. I realize this is likely making life much harder than
it needs to, but my deployment options are extremely limited, and
having an "externally" running application outside the IT-approved
norm (vs something "trusted"/"internal" like Excel) is currently a no-
go.

Is there any way to bridge the gap and allow this accessibility?

10-12 years ago several product existed that could expose
a Java bean as a COM object.

If you can still find one of those then you can use it.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

10-12 years ago several product existed that could expose
a Java bean as a COM object.

If you can still find one of those then you can use it.

http://www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0045.html
http://www.nevaobject.com/j2cdetails.asp
etc.

Arne

 

[Lew]

How about J#?  I know it is obsolete, but it is a way to get Java
source code into the Microsoft world.

J# will handle some Java source code, but not all. A quick web search
seems to indicate that J# doesn't support anything more recent than
Java 1.1.4 with a little bit of 1.2 collections. I found no evidence
of support for anything more recent. That's "obsolete" like the BP
oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a "leak".

Another consideration is that J# makes no promises to support most
standard Java API calls, with which most existing Java code abounds.

Another consideration is that it is not available in recent versions
of Microsoft's development suites.

So good luck with that one.

 

[Mac]

Thanks all. Arne, it appears that at least the rgagnon.com option
suffers from similar limitations as J#. The packager referenced
appears to only be a part of JDK 1.2, which I'm assuming translates to
a lack of support for anything more recent. Haven't yet examined the
other option, but the expense makes that a tough one to swallow. Will
probably give it a go though, just to see if the functionality is
really there.

Will continue to hunt and see if I can't come up with anything.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Mac]

Jeff-

Was actually just logging on to claim victory. Came across a mention
of the ActiveX Bridge out there somewher and gave it a shot...setup
was kind of a pain, but end result rocks. Once the packager chews
through your compiled .jar and spits out a dll, its a matter of
seconds to get it registered. From there, all your methods are
readily available from VBA. Admittedly, have only tossed a simple
class with a few very basic number crunching methods at it, but so far
so good.

Appreciate the below, and again everyone else's help.

Cheers!

Mac

 

[Jeff Higgins]

Jeff-

Was actually just logging on to claim victory. Came across a mention
of the ActiveX Bridge out there somewher and gave it a shot...setup
was kind of a pain, but end result rocks. Once the packager chews
through your compiled .jar and spits out a dll, its a matter of
seconds to get it registered. From there, all your methods are
readily available from VBA. Admittedly, have only tossed a simple
class with a few very basic number crunching methods at it, but so far
so good.

Great! Thanks for sharing. That'll give me another something to play
with on a future dreary day.
Something else I was unaware of that I discovered while poking around my
JDK bin directory was VisualVM, documented starting here:
<http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/visualvm/index.html>
Altogether a good day, thanks again.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

J# will handle some Java source code, but not all. A quick web search
seems to indicate that J# doesn't support anything more recent than
Java 1.1.4 with a little bit of 1.2 collections. I found no evidence
of support for anything more recent. That's "obsolete" like the BP
oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a "leak".

Another consideration is that J# makes no promises to support most
standard Java API calls, with which most existing Java code abounds.

Another consideration is that it is not available in recent versions
of Microsoft's development suites.

So good luck with that one.

It may actually work a lot better to run the Java byte
code via IKVM.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

> Thanks all. Arne, it appears that at least the rgagnon.com option
> suffers from similar limitations as J#. The packager referenced
> appears to only be a part of JDK 1.2, which I'm assuming translates to
> a lack of support for anything more recent. Haven't yet examined the
> other option, but the expense makes that a tough one to swallow. Will
> probably give it a go though, just to see if the functionality is
> really there.

Those two were just examples on what can be found.

With a little bit of luck more exist.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Those two were just examples on what can be found.

With a little bit of luck more exist.

Like:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/j-interop/
http://javaactivex.com/
http://j-integra.intrinsyc.com/

Arne