# Call COM methods using ActiveXComponent

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** vision\
**Created:** [April 10, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951 "2025-04-10T15:33:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fadihindi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/34f0e0/32.png) [@fadihindi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/fadihindi)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951/1 "2025-04-10T15:33:51Z")

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I'm trying to call COM methods using `ActiveXComponent` in a vision 7.9 project. I downloaded "jacob-1.21.zip" from [Releases · freemansoft/jacob-project · GitHub](https://github.com/freemansoft/jacob-project/releases/). This includes files "jacob.jar" and "jacob-1.21-x64.dll". I copied the .jar file to "C:\Program Files\Inductive Automation\Ignition\lib\core\common" and the .dll to "C:\Windows\System32". Restarted the gateway and on first line of script

from com.jacob.activeX import ActiveXComponent

> ImportError: No module named jacob

Tried copying these files to other locations with no luck (restarting gateway as appropriate). Is there more to importing these third party tools than just copying them to the right location?

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951/2 "2025-04-10T16:17:58Z")

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Can you look at the logs for the Client or when launching a Designer and see if that JAR is getting downloaded?

I can't remember if it was required that you manually apply pack200 compression to JARs that were destined for the Client or Designer (that's why there is a .pack.gz version of the JARs in those directories).

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951/3 "2025-04-10T16:26:03Z")

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> [@fadihindi](#):
>
> Restarted the gateway and on first line of script

Also - where are you executing this script from?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fadihindi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/34f0e0/32.png) [@fadihindi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/fadihindi)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951/4 "2025-04-10T18:38:57Z")

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I don't see anything indicating that the JAR is being downloaded.  
Designer Output console on startup:

INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Downloading... [+0]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Cleanup... [+786]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Initializing UI... [+786]  
INFO [Gateway-Designer-Startup] Starting up polling tag manager, polling rate: 250 ms  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: Vision [+1402]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: Reporting [+3306]  
INFO [Designer-Designer-Startup] Starting up Reporting Module. Mode: Activated  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: Alarm Notification [+3475]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: SFC [+3528]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: OPC-UA [+3611]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: Serial Support Client [+3613]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: SQL Bridge [+3625]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting module: Symbol Factory [+3783]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Initializing Scripting... [+3789]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Starting Tag System... [+3820]  
INFO [main-Designer-Startup] Initializing UI... [+3834]  
INFO [Gateway-SQLTags-TreeLoader-thread-1] Starting tag polling.

The log viewer also shows no info regarding downloading any JAR files. Same for the console and log viewer when launching a client.

I have tried executing this from the designer script console, on a button in the designer, and on a launched client. Same results for each.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/call-com-methods-using-activexcomponent/104951/5 "2025-04-10T20:12:36Z")

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> [@Kevin.Herron](#):
>
> manually apply pack200 compression to JARs

I'm about 90% sure this is required in 7.9. OP, try manually running the `pack200` executable in your Java install directory to compress the .jar files, in the same place you have the existing files.