DOORS DXL Export to .xlsx unreadable...except in Word - excel

I have a DOORS DXL script that (used to) export data to an Excel worksheet. It uses the filename specified/chosen through a GUI and tacks ".xlsx" on the end.
Well, the file is created and written to by the application. You cannot, however, open it with Excel, as the application complains
that "Excel cannot open the file 'Output.xlsx' because the file format or file extension is invalid." You can open it with Word 2016
and the text is totally readable. (??!!!)
This script was last used/modified in 2011. I believe the DOORS version was 9.1 on that project. Is that a contributing factor? (Using DOORS 9.6 on current project)
Anyone have any idea what debug steps I should take?
Thanks,
T Wilk

I tried exporting to .xls, and it worked, sort of... I had other problems to work through, so maybe if I went back and tried it again, now that those are solved, it would be fine.
Found out some interesting stuff today. I changed the 'file create' extension to .tsv, made my delimiter "\t", and the export worked beautifully. And .tsv files can easily be saved as .xlsx. Don't know what changed between DXL and Excel since the last time I used them together, but the straight export to .xlsx is not an option.
I also learned, since the last time I did this sort of thing, i.e., DOORS to Excel, that API's have been created so that you don't have to bother with setting up the
export in your code. Someone pointed me to some Mike Sunderland code (Galactic Solutions). I'm going to pick that apart tomorrow.
Got a lot to do, and I'm having fun!
Thanks for the time and interest.
Tara

Related

Excel behaves strange with XSLX file created manually

Based on knowledge gained through working with the OpenXML SDK, I have implemented an Excel generator in JS (using TypeScript with ReactJS and a custom JSX factory generating plain XML). The files generated open fine in Excel and one can also edit and save them fine in Excel, no errors.
However, if one tries to copy cells (even a single one) from such a generated Excel file to another worksheet in the same Excel instance, it fails with the error "The command cannot be used on multiple selections.". Just saving and reopening the file is enough to fix the problem. Copying to other applications (e.g. Notepad) works fine.
It seems that this particular error is shown by Excel in several edge cases where the data is not exactly meet the expected format, for instance I found reports of that happening when a sheet is hidden when manipulating it via VBA. However, in my case I'm not sure what could be causing the issue.
Just saving the file in Excel unfortunately significantly alters its parts, so that I couldn't get a meaningful diff out of it. I did not see what could be causing the problem. Maybe someone has some experience with the internals of Excel?
To get a sample file, copy the following into your browser address bar and save it as xlsx file:
data:application/vndopenxmlformats-officedocumentspreadsheetmlsheet;base64,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
Well, I don't know the particulars of how you are generating the xml file, but I can tell you how to edit the underlying xml files so that it will work, and then perhaps you can figure out how to use your implementation to change the property that's gunking things up.
First, an xlsx is a set of xml files. I'm sure you know that, but I'm just starting at the beginning. You can change the extension to zip and then extract the files, and then rezip them and change the extension back to xlsx.
So do this:
take the generated xlsx
change the extension to .zip
extract the files
find xl\worksheets\sheet1.xml
open it and find this property: worksheet>sheetViews>sheetView:tabSelected
set it to 0
save the file
go back to the unzipped folder
select all files and send to zip
change the extension on the new zip file to .xlsx
You should now be able to open the newly created xlsx, add a new sheet, and copy freely.
If this works for you, then you have diagnosed the problem, one property set to true when it shouldn't be, and it should be relatively simple for you to modify your export procedure.
I've had this issue multiple times in the past.
The way I solved it was by filling out (populating) a template (file, previously created in Office) with the exported data rather than generating a file from scratch. Office unfortunately does not fully comply with OpenXML, and for more complex exports you might even be unable to open the file.
I would also recommend Beyond Compare (now Scooter Software) for comparing the two files instead of just doing a diff.

Excel hangs/crashes while updating external link at file opening

I encountered this weird ass and funny error.
I built a file for data ETL. This one takes in various .csv files, combines them and export new .csv files using VBA. The file is originally named as "xxx Modelling ETL.xlsm". It could be opened normally till one day it hangs or crashes while trying to recalculating something (may be the underground query).
After hours of struggling, I opened the file as a copy (under a new name of Copy of ...). Strangely it ran smoothly, no crash or hang. Then I try rename it by remove the "Copy of" part, then the error occurs again.
I want to share this as there could be someone has the same problem, or someone who could shed some light on this black magic thing.
Some solutions:
Rename the file or move it to local drive instead of Onedrive makes thing works normally again.
Open Trust Center, disable Macro with notification, Trusted Locations, and Trusted Documents. Enable them for specific files when open, not for all.

Is There a way to recover a severely corrupted EXCEL FILE?

I'm currently working on my data using Ms.Excel.
But suddenly the file that I'm working in was broken. when I tried to open it again I get error where it contain "ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ" (See Picture).
Screenshoot Corrupted Excel File
The data was not really big, it's only arround 130KB. Besides, Autorecovery Mode was Turned On every 10 minutes. But I don't know How To use it.
I tried to solve the problem many times using below method:
First, I tried to check the "Ignore .... " in Excel Option.
Second, I tried Open and Repair the file, but still can't open it.
Third, I tried to use a third party, Using 2 Software (Stellar Phoenix Excel Repair And Recovery Tools For Excel). but Both not Working.
So I wonder if anyone can help me to get my data back? is there any way to recover the file? or is there a way to get the data within the file?
Thank you for all the suggestion you gave me, From the last comment I tried to get and extract the data using Programmer editor and using VBA, but both not give a good result, basically when you tried to extract the data when the file is corrupted it only get a unique character.
So here is my solution, since i'm using windows, I tried to Reinstall my Ms.Office and recover my Excel file on mac, and boom the magic worked.
Once again, thanks for your help.

Extracting then importing a Csv.gz file into Excel/SPSS...problem recognising the text qualifier?

I am using a file from Insideairbnb.com for my thesis. It is a csv.gz file so first I extracted it using the 'Archive Utility' for Mac.
It is comma delimited and uses double quotes as the text qualifier which I specified in the Import popup but Excel/SPSS is still delimitating at the commas within the text.
It is a large file that includes full airbnb descriptions and reviews which are contained in double quotations. Unfortunately, there are many commas within the strings of text. I have never seen a csv file with this format but I believe it was put together correctly because I have seen Insideairbnb cited for data in quite a few scholarly articles.
I have included a link to pictures of a snippet of the data on the SPSS import window. If anyone knows how to go about importing this I would greatly appreciate your feedback :)
Thank you in advance!
[[1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iy3dA.png][1][SPSS screenshot]
[1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/i7KcG.png[SPSS screenshot 2][1]
I agree with #sarawhite's comment above; if this is a one-time problem there are a couple things I would try.
open the .csv in excel, and if it looks right, save it and then try
to import it in SPSS, or saveas an .xlsx file and import that
(although there can be nonsense with string variables in either
scenario)
OR
open in notepad++ and look at the raw data. you can find and replace
double line breaks fairly easily.
I copy-pasted the data into Notepad++ yesterday, then converted it to ANSI and copy-pasted it back into Excel. Yesterday, it worked, but today it doesn't...
Anyways, maybe this thread is helpful for people with the same question. I will try again at a later point in time.

an HTML file is NOT an Excel file, right?

we use an application that has an "export to excel" feature that doesn't work on PC's that done have outlook express installed.
i know, you're thinking "WTF does outlook express have to do with excel files?"
i asked the same thing, and here's what i found:
the file being generated is actually one of those Microsoft Single File Web Pages (.mht) and NOT an excel file
you need to have outlook express installed to actually view a .mht file.
i've explained to their support people that just because you can slap a .xls on a file and excel will open it does not mean its an excel file, and does not mean that this is the right way to do it.
how would you explain that this is not proper?
Many people (especially managers) confuse Excel files with reporting files. In my opinion, a file is only qualified as an Excel file if it meets all of these conditions:
Is a spreadsheet formatted in one of the many Microsoft Excel formats.
Can be opened in the most recent version of Microsoft Excel.
Is editable in Microsoft Excel.
In your case, I'm guessing only condition #3 is met, so it's no Excel file. But your support people may still call it a reporting file.
If a clean Windows image with only Excel installed can't open it, then it isn't in Excel format. Period.
If a Windows machine with Outlook Express, but without Excel can open it (if you change the extension) then it can't be an Excel file. I'd combine that with Ignacio's suggestion for a slam-dunk.
Plus, surely if it's MHT, then you can't actually do spreadsheet operations on it? Or am I misunderstanding how it works?
I don't think your statements are correct. Excel (2007) has import and export filters for single-file HTML documents (.mht) even if there is no Outlook Express installed. However, this is not a native format and worksheet features such as formulas cannot be retained (see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP100141051033.aspx#7)
So what you should make clear to your customers is that there is a difference between an applications native file format and a format which isn't designed to contain spreadsheet functionality and that is only supported via an import/export filter.

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