Recently I got a call from another M2M Consultant who was attempting to install M2M on Windows 7. He simply could not get VBA to work. I asked him to run through the steps and I found his problem right away. He had made a mistake early in the process; I have made similar mistakes as well. I have ranted in an earlier article, about the confusing, tedious process of installing VBA for Made2Manage.
However, the consultant assured me he had followed the instructions properly. When I checked the instructions on the Made2Manage Version 6.0 DVD I found the following:
1. Copy the entire \Made2Manage Optional Modules\VBA folder and all its sub-folders from the DVD to a new VBA folder in your …\m2mwin\dtk folder. The m2mwin directory is the directory where the m2m.exe executable is installed and may be different from machine to machine.
2. In the m2mwin\dtk\vba folder, double-click the VBA6.msi file. This will install VBA.
Do not do this. Doing so will cause your VBA install to fail. The correct instructions should be to copy the contents of the VBA file from the install source, but not the VBA folder itself.
But Wait! There’s More!
When I checked the install instructions from the M2M Version 5.6 CD the instructions were incorrect as well. Doesn’t anyone check this stuff? M2M 5.6 has been out for approximately three years.
Anyway, the correct, albeit poorly written, instructions for M2M 5.6 (and presumably for 6.0 as well) are below and were taken from M2M Expert.
Steps to install VBA to ensure proper registry and functionality
If VBA is not registered properly, users will not be able to login to Made2Manage without errors. The following describes the way to install VBA for proper functionality.
1. Obtain the CD containing VBA for your current Made2Manage system.
VBA is version specific, so with each upgrade, each computer must have VBA re-installed. Please see note [1].
2. Navigate to the VBA sub-folder on the CD.
3. Copy the entire VBA folder files and sub-folders from the install CD to your local drive’s DTK sub-folder within the Made2Manage program folder.
You will be replacing the files and sub-folders within but not including the VBA parent folder from the CD’s VBA folder into the DTK root folder. Opt Yes to overwrite.
The Made2Manage program folder is where your shortcut points, which shows in the properties of the program icon. Alternatively, from the windows Start Bar, click the find files or folders menu option and search for the m2m.exe file. Within this program folder will be the DTK folder to designate as the target folder.
Example: c:\program files\made2manage\dtk
The source folder from the CD is the contents of the VBA CD folder, not including the actual VBA parent folder.
At the conclusion of the copy you will have the same local DTK folder (c:\program files\made2manage\dtk) with a set of files and folders under it which does not include a VBA sub-folder, just the contents of the CD VBA folder. E.g., c:\program files\made2manage\dtk\vba will not exist after the copy, but 7 other folders will exist, including c:\program files\made2manage\dtk\cc.
4. Drill to the DTK folder within the Made2Manage program folder on your local drive. Double click the VBA6.msi file to start the VBA install.
5. Copy the M2V.app file from the DTK sub-folder to the Made2Manage program folder. The target folder will be that containing the m2m.exe file. The source folder will be the DTK sub-folder.
Example: Copy file c:\program files\made2manage\dtk\m2v.app to c:\program files\made2manage
If given an option to replace, opt yes.
6. Copy the M2VInterface.exe from the DTK sub-folder to the windows system folder.
a. The system folder is specific to your operating system. It will usually be either c:\windows\system32 or c:\windows\system.
b. If you have both the system and system32 folders, check to see if the m2vinterface is already in one. If so, that is the one to replace.
c. If the m2vinterface file is in both system and system32, delete one occurrence and replace the other with that of the DTK folder.
d. If the m2vinterface isn’t in either, copy it to the system32 sub-folder
7. Double click the newly placed m2vinterface.exe file.
a. The double click should be done within the target windows system folder to which the m2vinterface was copied.
b. Nothing will appear to happen which is the correct result.
c. Double clicking the m2vinterface file will self register it.
8. Check M2MExpert to see if there are any VBA service pack or hot patch files.
For example, version v5.6 has a replacement m2v.app. Download and install or copy/replace any patch on M2MExpert.
9. Launch Made2Manage.
10. Open the User Management window ( USER )
Locate your user name record, modify, and check the box for VBA Developer. This will allow you to right click on the form and select components or macros
11. Repeat the installation process on any computer that needs to access or use VBA forms.
Any questions?
Yes, the instructions are long, confusing, and often wrong. Do you really think M2M would make it any other way? Perhaps M2M figures that anyone that is capable of working around all the bugs in VBA are also capable of doing the same to instal it. If they make writing VB code for M2M next to impossible, why not make installing it just as difficult?
You know, I’ve recently came accross your blog. I was doing this install a little wrong. I have changed it to exacly how you have it, yet for the life of me, I cannot get a brand new workstion with fresh install of Windows XP and M2M to work with the VBA interface. It like its never connecting or installing.
Shane, are you on support? If so, it’s their responsibility to get VBA working for you. If not, e-mail me at david@made2mentor.com and I’ll try to help you myself.
Hi. When executing m2vinterface.exe, I get an uknown error on Windows 7. Am I out of luck with 7?
What exactly is the error? Have you tried running M2M in XP Mode for Windows 7? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx