Refreshing an excel pivot table using windows scheduler - excel

I am responsible for updating an Excel spreadsheet which pulls its information from an Access database on a daily basis. All the data that i need for my excel spreadsheet is available for me and all that i need to do is open the document, provide the password, enable to content and click the refresh button.
The database is very large and updating this during normal working hours causes problems as it slows down other users on the network. How would i use Windows Scheduler to do this for me outside of working hours? I'm not sure how to set up my script to follow my steps required.

I've had to do something quite similar to this recently, and with the help of this forum I've found something that works for me, and by the sounds of it may work for you too!
I created a notepad file with the following .vbs script
Dim oExcel
Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
oExcel.Visible = True
oExcel.DisplayAlerts = False
oExcel.AskToUpdateLinks = False
oExcel.AlertBeforeOverwriting = False
Set oWorkbook = oExcel.Workbooks.Open("Full Path of your file.xlsx")
oWorkbook.RefreshAll
oWorkbook.Save
oExcel.Quit
Set oWorkbook = Nothing
Set oExcel = Nothing
What this does, it opens the file, refreshes any data connections, then saves the file and exits.
I then put this as a scheduled task to run at an off peak time, so that when the user opens the workbook, it's up to date.
I hope this helps!

I managed to achieve this through the VBA
hit Alt - F11
right click ThisWorkbook and click view code.
the code is as follows:
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Workbooks.Open ("location of your workbook"), Password:="whatever your password is"
ThisWorkbook.RefreshAll
End Sub
i save this document and ask the task scheduler to run it at a specific time.

Related

Excel file linked to SharePoint list to refresh ever minute

I have SharePoint 2010 and Office365.
I want an Excel spreadsheet, which has data from a SharePoint list to auto refresh every 1 min.
I tried to follow the procedure from the following blog
Here is the VBS code that I'm using:
Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
set wb = xl.WorkBooks.open("\\SPREADSHEET LOCATION\Sharepoint Pivot.xlsx",,TRUE)
xl.DisplayAlerts = False
WScript.Sleep 1000
wb.RefreshAll
wb.Save
wb.Close
xl.Quit
Then I created a task in Task Scheduler to run every minute.
Monitoring the progress in Task Manager, I can see that the file is being opened and it seems to work, but the data is not getting refreshed.
I have a feeling that this is because when the file is opened from SharePoint it's opening with the "Read-Only" message.
I thought that the code is taking care of that, but maybe it's not.
I wanted to debug the code by running one step at a time but I dont have access to cscript.exe
Am I doing something wrong here? I've looked around trying to find a solution but everyone seems to have the same code as above.
Thank you
I had a similar problem but found a solution - using .LockServerFile. See example code:
set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xl.Application.DisplayAlerts=False
set wb = xl.WorkBooks.open("location of excel file goes here")
WScript.Sleep 1000
xl.ActiveWorkbook.LockServerFile (only use if location is in Sharepoint to turn off edit mode)
wb.RefreshAll
wb.Save
xl.Application.DisplayAlerts=True
wb.Close
xl.Quit

VBScript to Refresh Excel Data Connections (Trouble with Office 365)

I have a large Excel file that uses PowerPivot to connect to several external data sources. The Excel file is stored in a SharePoint folder. I would like to be able to refresh the connections automatically overnight. To do this, I am using Windows Task Scheduler to trigger a VBScript each day at 2AM.
Previously, I had the script run a macro within the workbook to refresh all. This worked successfully until my organization recently updated to Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus. I am now struggling with the new read-only default setting for SharePoint. Following the update, whenever I open an Excel file from SharePoint, I see a yellow bar reading "Read-Only: We opened this workbook read-only from the server. Edit Workbook". When working with files manually, this has to be clicked before changes can be saved. I tried to research the programmatic workaround for this and found the recommendation to use the method .LockServerFile.
To streamline the trouble-shooting, I have tried to move the entire action into the VBScript script, rather than running a macro within the workbook. My code is below.
When I watch the process, the yellow "Read-Only" bar appears to pop up immediately before the save. I can run the process once with no apparent errors, but if I then manually open the file, I don't see the option to "Edit Workbook". If I manually change the file, save, and then run the script again, I get the error 800A03EC.
It seems that somehow the script is failing to correctly "release" the lock on the server file after it finishes.
Is there a way to fix this?
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set objWorkbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Open("[[The Sharepoint Path]]")
objExcel.Application.DisplayAlerts = False
objExcel.Application.Visible = True
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.LockServerFile
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.EnableConnections
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("P2").Value = Date
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.RefreshAll
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Save
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close false
objExcel.Application.Quit
set objworkbook = Nothing
set objExcel = Nothing
WScript.Quit

External data does not load in excel when scheduled from scheduled task

The problem is I made a script that opens and refreshes data in my excel.
The data is external data from a PHD server I get this data with a plugin installed on excel.
All works fine untill I try to schedule the script with task scheduler. when I schedule it as "run only when user is logged on" it workes fine. but when I try to schedule it as " run wheter user is logged on or not" it does not update the data.
(it does open the excel and saves it but no changes in the data)
It is set on a VM that acts as a desktop and the updates need to be done even when i'm logged of.
The code of the script: (that works fine when i manualy launch it)
Dim oExcel
Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application") 'launch excel.
oExcel.Visible = True ' makes the aplication visible (if not set to true the data won't be updated)
oExcel.DisplayAlerts = False' disables all excel allerts.
oExcel.AskToUpdateLinks = False 'now excel will not ask you to update links.
oExcel.AlertBeforeOverwriting = False 'excel will not display an alert before overwriting data in a cell.
code for the plugin to update data
Dim addIn
addIn = COMAddIn
Dim automationObject
automationObject = Object
Set addIn = oExcel.COMAddIns("ExcelCompanion")
Set automationObject = addIn.Object
automationObject.UNIF_workbook_refresh
code to save and close excel
oWorkbook.RefreshAll 'refreshes the workbook
oWorkbook.Save 'saves the updated workoob
oWorkbook.Final = True 'makes the file read-only
oExcel.Quit 'exits excel
Set oWorkbook = Nothing ' destroy the object (minimises damage if the object goes out of scope)
Set oExcel = Nothing ' destroy the object (minimises damage if the object goes out of scope)
these 3 block of code form the script.
Hencky!
Which version of Windows do you have? I had the same problem about a week ago, and I came across a very strange solution... :)
Try adding a folder into C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile, simply named "Desktop"... If you run a 32-bit version of Windows, do the same thing except the path must contain system32 instead of SysWOW64...
The "run wheter user is logged on or not" will now do the work... If you had a logging function in your script, you would've seen that the script stops somewhere arround Excel commands... I don't know why is that so, it simply is...

Excel Macro: Open Sheet in Background and Execute Analysis in Background Sheet

I am relatively new to the true power in Excel - Macros/VBA and have been tasked to set up the financial model for a million dollar project. I am able to set everything up and have it run smoothly, but there's too much manual input involved. I would like to seek simplification through the power of VBA.
This is my dilemma:
I need to be able to individually double-click on a specific set of cells (in a Row), which will open up a file window that allows me to select a EXL file.
Once I select the file, that file should be preferably opened in a temp status (not visible, but I can run functions and pull info from it).
I will then need the macro to go into that opened sheet, conduct a simple SUMIFS function, and record the outcome in a column of the current sheet I'm working from.
I've been doing some Excel tutorial on Lynda in hope to seek the answers there, but I think the complexity of this request demands the knowledge of a true master.
Any help will be greatly appreciated! I would imagine this could be a nice little challenge for those who seek it :)
Sincere thanks,
Try this:
Dim appExcel As Excel.Application
Set appExcel = CreateObject("EXCEL.Application")
Dim wkbk As Excel.Workbook
Set wkbk = appExcel.Workbooks.Open(sPathSrc, , False, , , sPassword)
' do EXCEL work here
If Not wkbk Is Nothing Then wkbk.Close True
Set wkbk = Nothing
If Not appExcel Is Nothing Then
appExcel.DisplayAlerts = False
appExcel.Quit
End If
Set appExcel = Nothing
This code is from an ACCESS application that invoked EXCEL to print some reports. I found it necessary to sprinkle some DOEVENTS calls around, but it was all a while ago; some details escape me at this moment.

Unhide Excel Application Session

I have an Excel VBA method (I didn't write it) that runs and one of the first things it does is hide the Excel session Application.Visible = False.
However, when the method has finished, it does not unhide the Excel session so it remains open and listed in the Task Manager but is hidden and seemingly unusable.
Does anyone know, without have the VBE open (so one can access the Immediate Window and run Application.Visible = True), how to unhide this Excel session? At the moment, I'm simply having to kill the session using the Task Manager.
This isn't a massive deal but I'm just interested if anyone knows how to resurrect such a session.
Like I said, it's not a big deal but was just interested if anyone knew of shortcut key or anything to bring it back.
There is no shortcut as such that I am aware of but you can do this.
Open MS Word and paste this code in the VBA Editor. Close all open instances of Excel which are visible and then run and this code. This will make a hidden instance visible. Manually close the instance and repeat the process if there are more instances.
Option Explicit
Sub Sample()
Dim oXLApp As Object
'~~> Get an existing instance of an EXCEL application object
On Error Resume Next
Set oXLApp = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
On Error GoTo 0
oXLApp.Visible = True
Set oXLApp = Nothing
End Sub
I am not deliberately using a loop as the hidden instance can have a workbook which you might like to save?
If you want you can convert the above code to a VB Script document which you can directly run from the desktop.
Unfortunately, I don't have the control to make the changes required.
What do you exactly mean? Is the VBA Password Protected? If no then my suggestion is still the same as earlier
This is a case of poor programming. Even if we give a code to close
all hidden Excel instances, that won't help you. Because next time you
run that macro, you will face the same problem again. Why not edit the
existing code and add Application.Visible = True at the end? Is the
VBA password protected? – Siddharth Rout 28 mins ago
A good solution!
Open up Word, assuming you have it, and open the VBA Editor there, then open the Immediate Window (Ctrl+G) and type:
Getobject(, "Excel.Application").Visible = true
and press enter.
I had a similar problem and solved it with code line reordering.
Look for a line like this ActiveWorkbook.Close that might be the reason you cannot unhide the session.
If you can find it, put Application.Visible = True just before it and voila.
as code:
sub runthis()
dim xl as object
set xl = new excel.application 'create session
xl.workbooks.open filename:= "«yourpath»" 'open wb in the new session
xl.visible=true 'this is what you need, show it up!
'rest of the code
end sub
No need for word macro at all.
Open up another excel workbook.
Hit Ctrl+F11 to go to the VBA editor and there yoy will see the running but hidden excel file on the left.
Search the code of the hidden application file for Application.Visible = False and comment it out. Save and restart the file.
Alternatively you can get back the application to show without closing if you type Application.Visible = True in the immediate window (Ctrl+G)

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