Java 7: COM-API does not work with Quality Center (OTAClient.dll), but works with Java 6

Question

We are running on Windows 7 Enterprise, SP1, 64bit. We just installed Java 7 on all our machines, which causes the following problem:

When my program tries to communicate with the OpenTestArchitecture-API from Quality Center it fails to create the ActiveX-Component. I use JACOB as my Java-COM library. Upgrading to the latest version of JACOB does not change anything.

The following test works with jdk1.6.0_24 (32 bit) but fails with jdk1.7.0_04 (32 bit):

import java.io.File;

import com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent;
import com.jacob.com.ComThread;
import com.jacob.com.Dispatch;
import com.jacob.com.LibraryLoader;

public class JacobTest {
    static {
        File lib = new File("lib/" + LibraryLoader.getPreferredDLLName() + ".dll");
        System.setProperty(LibraryLoader.JACOB_DLL_PATH, lib.getAbsolutePath());

        System.out.println("JACOB_DLL_PATH = " + lib.getAbsolutePath());
        LibraryLoader.loadJacobLibrary();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            // Excel: Works with jdk1.6.0_24 AND jdk1.7.0_04
            System.out.println("new ActiveXComponent(\"Excel.Application\");");
            new ActiveXComponent("Excel.Application");

            // Quality Center OTAClient: Only works with jdk1.6.0_24
            System.out.println("ActiveXComponent component = new ActiveXComponent(\"TDApiOle80.TDConnection\");");
            ActiveXComponent component = new ActiveXComponent("TDApiOle80.TDConnection");

            System.out.println("ComThread.InitSTA();");
            ComThread.InitSTA();

            System.out.println("Dispatch.call(component, \"InitConnectionEx\", \"http://intranet/qcbin\");");
            Dispatch.call(component, "InitConnectionEx", "http://intranet/qcbin");
        }
        catch (Exception exception) {
            exception.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

jdk1.6.0_24 output:

JACOB_DLL_PATH = C:\Development\Java\Test\JacobTest\lib\jacob-1.17-M2-x86.dll

new ActiveXComponent("Excel.Application");
ActiveXComponent component = new ActiveXComponent("TDApiOle80.TDConnection");
ComThread.InitSTA();
Dispatch.call(component, "InitConnectionEx", "http://intranet/qcbin");

jdk1.7.0_04 output:

JACOB_DLL_PATH = C:\Development\Java\Test\JacobTest\lib\jacob-1.17-M2-x86.dll

new ActiveXComponent("Excel.Application");
ActiveXComponent component = new ActiveXComponent("TDApiOle80.TDConnection");
com.jacob.com.ComFailException: Invalid access to memory location.
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.createInstanceNative(Native Method)
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.<init>(Dispatch.java:99)
    at com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent.<init>(ActiveXComponent.java:58)
    at JacobTest.main(JacobTest.java:26)

The original ComFailException-Message is "Can't co-create object" but I've edited the following Code in the jacob Dispatch.cpp: (I didn't touch CoCreateInstance, I just wanted to know what the HRESULT was)

  // standard creation
  hr = CoCreateInstance(clsid,NULL,CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER|CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,IID_IUnknown, (void **)&punk);
  if (!SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
     if (hr == REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)
        ThrowComFail(env, "Can't co-create object: REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG", hr);
     if (hr == CLASS_E_NOAGGREGATION)
        ThrowComFail(env, "Can't co-create object: CLASS_E_NOAGGREGATION", hr);
     if (hr == E_NOINTERFACE)
        ThrowComFail(env, "Can't co-create object: E_NOINTERFACE", hr);
     if (hr == E_POINTER)
        ThrowComFail(env, "Can't co-create object: E_POINTER", hr);

     _com_error error(hr);
     LPCTSTR errorText = error.ErrorMessage();

     ThrowComFail(env, errorText, hr);
     return;
  }

Does anyone have a clue what the problem could be? The only difference is that I switch between the Java 6 and Java 7 runtime.

Thanks very much for your help!

PS: Excel works with both versions and a switch to the com4j-Library does not change anything. (I have a com4j-Test, but I didn't post it because I've already posted enough code)

Edit: The same test works with Windows XP, SP3 and Java 7.

Answer 1

Jacob DLL is linked with jvm.dll (methods and structures) from the JRE. So my guess is that the Jacob DLL should be compiled from sources with Java 7 to load properly into Java 7 JRE.

You are not alone but I guess too few people are already running Java 7...

Update: I propose you investigate first with Process Monitor if there are some library or system calls failing in your Java process, before running the process itself in a debugger... Maybe OpenJDK 7 may be an option to try too, it should be easier to debug then, at least to diagnose what the problem is.