Marshal.GetActiveObject(String) Method

Definition

Obtains a running instance of the specified object from the running object table (ROT).

C#
public static object GetActiveObject (string progID);
C#
[System.Security.SecurityCritical]
public static object GetActiveObject (string progID);

Parameters

progID
String

The programmatic identifier (ProgID) of the object that was requested.

Returns

The object that was requested; otherwise null. You can cast this object to any COM interface that it supports.

Attributes

Exceptions

The object was not found.

Examples

The following example was run on a computer that was configured with a running instance of Microsoft Word. There were no instances of Microsoft Excel running.

The example calls GetActiveObject twice. The first call tries to retrieve a reference to an instance of Microsoft Word (an instance of the Word.Application object). The second call tries to retrieve a reference to an instance of Microsoft Excel (an instance of an Excel.Application object).

The code retrieves a reference to an instance of Microsoft Word successfully. However, because Microsoft Excel is not running, the attempt to retrieve the second object raises a COMException.

C#
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

class MainFunction
{
    static void Main()
        {
        Console.WriteLine("\nSample: C# System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject.cs\n"); 

        GetObj(1, "Word.Application");
        GetObj(2, "Excel.Application");
        }

    static void GetObj(int i, String progID)
    {
        Object obj = null;

        Console.WriteLine("\n" +i+") Object obj = GetActiveObject(\"" + progID + "\")");
        try
           { obj = Marshal.GetActiveObject(progID); }
        catch (Exception e)
           {
           Write2Console("\n   Failure: obj did not get initialized\n" + 
                         "   Exception = " +e.ToString().Substring(0,43), 0); 
           }
 
        if (obj != null)
           { Write2Console("\n   Success: obj = " + obj.ToString(), 1 ); }
    }

    static void Write2Console(String s, int color)
        {
        Console.ForegroundColor = color == 1? ConsoleColor.Green : ConsoleColor.Red;
        Console.WriteLine(s); 
        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Gray;
    }
}

/*
Expected Output:

Sample: C# System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject.cs

1) Object obj = GetActiveObject("Word.Application")

   Success: obj = System.__ComObject

2) Object obj = GetActiveObject("Excel.Application")

   Failure: obj did not get initialized
   Exception = System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
*/

Remarks

For more information about this API, see Supplemental API remarks for Marshal.GetActiveObject.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1