Code works in the IDE crashes in the exe with error 91 "object variable not set"

Question

This code works great in the IDE but crashes every time on the last line when made into an exe and run on the same machine. Any idea why?

PageFinished = False
Cancelling = False
OKToUnload = False

WebBrowser.Navigate ("https://www.example.com/index.jsp")

Do While PageFinished = False  'set to true in document complete event
    DoEvents
    If Cancelling = True Then
        OKToUnload = True
        GoTo Endline
    End If
Loop
PageFinished = False
WebBrowser.Document.All("UserId").Value = txtNumber.Text 'error here

Answer 1

Without seeing more of your sample code, I'd venture to guess that this is a timing issue that's "hidden" by the VB IDE. Test WebBrowser.Document.All("UserId") before setting the .Value property. It is probably not available (Nothing) at the time the non-IDE version of the code gets to that point.

"Object Variable or With Block Variable Not Set" is VB's way of telling you about a null reference, and in the line WebBrowser.Document.All("UserId") you have 3 separate objects that could be null.

Answer 2

You will need to add msgboxes showing the result of testing which variable are set to NOTHING or write to a text file and run the exe and see what is set to nothing.

It may be as simple as having a wait before the last line. A Wait subroutine looks like this.

Public Sub Wait(T As Double)
    Dim StartTime As Double
    StartTime = Timer
    Do While Abs(Timer - StartTime) < T
    Loop
End Sub

I would try a 1/10 of second and work your way up. i.e Wait .1 If have to wait a second or more then make sure you call DoEvents periodically to keep your application responsive.

The reason for this is that the IDE always uses PCODE so is a touch slower than a EXE complied to EXE. You may want to try compiling to PCODE as well to see if that makes a difference.