BUG: MFC Active Document Container Can Hang After Invoking Server's About Box

• The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), included with:
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, version 6.0

SYMPTOMS

Invoking the About box of a DocObject, from an MFC DocObject container, can cause a deadlock that will cause both container and server to lock up.

DocObject containers display a merged Help menu that contains About box menu items for both the DocObject container and the current in-place active DocObject server. When a user attempts to invoke the About box of the DocObject server from this merged Help menu, the server's About box will be displayed as expected. But if the user moves input focus to another window, and then attempts to dismiss the server's About box, the About box will become disabled, and both the container and server will be hung.

CAUSE

This deadlock condition is a result of the MFC DocObject container forwarding the WM_COMMAND message for the server's About box via the SendMessage API. The MFC DocObject container is the first to receive the WM_COMMAND message to invoke the About box. When the container receives the message, it needs to forward the message to the server, so the server can invoke its About box.

This is done in an undocumented function called COleFrameHook::OnPreTranslateMessage. COleFrameHook::OnPreTranslateMessage is called by the container's main frame window when the container is currently hosting an in-place active embedding or DocObject.

Because SendMessage is synchronous, the MFC DocObject container stops pumping messages and waits for the server to completely process the WM_COMMAND message, which is what introduces the deadlock condition.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

COleFrameHook::OnPreTranslateMessage should call SendNotifyMessage instead of SendMessage, to forward the WM_COMMAND message to the DocObject server. SendNotifyMessage will post the WM_COMMAND message to the server's message queue, when the server is an .exe file, and send it directly, when the server is a .dll file.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Create a generic MFC Active Document Container application with the MFC AppWizard.



2. Build and run the application.



3. Insert a Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel document into the container by using the Insert New Object menu item on the container's Edit menu.



4. Invoke the Word (or Excel) About box from the container's Help menu.



5. While the About box is displayed, click the container's main window, or click a window in another application.



6. Try to dismiss the About box.

Additional query words: Active Document Container

Keywords          : kbole kbActiveDocs kbActiveX kbContainer kbLocalSvr kbMFC kbVC600bug kbGrpMFCATL 
Version           : winnt:6.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug 

Last Reviewed: July 16, 1999