Prevent Excel from closing after process completes

[NicholasTeo]

I have a process that evolves processing of data, and after the process completes, the user would like the Excel spreadsheet to remain open for their reference. However, when running the process via the Control Room, the Excel instance is automatically closed despite that not being included in the Process. I noticed that a reset when running in debug mode also closes all Excel instances despite it not being specified in the code. Is there a way to prevent the Excel instance from being closed after the process completes when being run from the control room?

[bruce.liu]

Hi Nicholas,

Have you tried explicitly open Excel by calling its executable?

[krishna.kodimurali9]

You are right Bruce, one open the excel using the start process action and later attach it for further actions instead of creating an instance through msg excel vbo.

[NicholasTeo]

I launched excel by calling the exe path instead of launching using the VBO, and then attaching to it using the VBO's Attach action. However, Blue Prism automatically closes the Excel instance after the process completes when running in the control room. If the process runs in debug mode, even after hitting the 'End' stage, the instance remains open. Doing a 'Reset' of the process closes the Excel instance as well - I believe it is some form of a cleanup function performed by Blue Prism after a scheduled process runs. It would be good if a Blue Prism admin can advise on this.

[NicholasZejdlik · Accepted solution]

In the Clean Up action of the MS Excel VBO, it calls the Close All Instances action which closes any Excel instances that have been attached. In debug mode the reset button triggers the Clean Up action of any objects that were loaded, hence why it closes Excel when you hit reset. Use the Release Instance action to "detach" the MS Excel VBO from the Excel instance, which will prevent Clean Up from automatically closing it.