The issue here is ADO connection with Excel - is this still the standard way to read/write excel files within a Dephi XE environment? We're coming up with multiple issues when reading/writing using the ACEOLEDB driver (ACE 12) and this includes
Reading cells with hashtags don't return results
"Invalid Floating Point" when exporting grids.
We've also noticed that there's many versions of the ACE 12 driver out on Microsoft's website (via Access Database driver executables) and they each seem to have different issues with Delphi.
With these things in mind,
Is using ADO with Excel bad at this point?
Does anyone else have these issues and what did you do to resolve them (other than using XLS files instead of XLSX)?
ADO in Delphi is leaning to TDataSet model, which mean strictly tabular data... that excel is not. Each excel sheet has a random cells filled, some of those may constitute quazi-tabular ranges, or may not.
Depending on the installed software you can
1) use Excel application to open XLSX, read the cells and pass them to your program. This is most easy and compatible method, though is noticeably slow due to COM IPC marshalling and switching. There are tricks to fasten it, like hiding Excel window, copying arrays of data instead of cell-by-cell approach and such.
Start exploring TExcelApplication component - http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/XE3/en/Using_Component_Wrappers
2) If you do not want to rely on having commercial Excel installed, you may try reading XLSX files with OpenOffice. Vanilla OpenOffice can only read them though, but some other distro's can write them as well. OpenOffice also exposes external APIs both COM-based and HTTP-based. I know there are Delphi projects of Delphi - OOo interacting but personally did not used them and apart of noting that approach i can say no detailed assesment of it.
3) Microsoft also used to sell Office for Developers or such, that gave you Access and Excel kernels as redistributables, that you could pass with your application and install them and use them. Dunno if it is still feasible though.
4) there is a set of commercial components reading and writing those files directly w/o need to have external EXE's doing the job. While that would be the most fast way to work, it would only support some subset of features (which may or may not be ok for your particular goals) and may have troubles with "future compatibility" as Microsoft would roll out updated versions of XLS and XLSX formats (which again may be of some or none concern to you). Like there was TXLSFile for Biff8 format, there is for example OExport library. There is also a component from well known TMS Studio and maybe some more.
5) You can join some open-source project and try to enhance it for your needs, then again that depends upon how much the subset you need.
I know, many people succefulyl use OLE DB to access Excel data, but for me it always sounded as some perversino, because Excel files do not have any internal regular data arrangement at all, less so strictly-tabular RDBMS-like one.
I've really only ever found it possible to manipulate Excel via COM. I've tried alternatives, like ADO, but they always seem so full of archane bugs - or maybe it's just my ignorance.
COM is definitely slow in certain areas. I've used a combination of COM and (within the Excel file) VBA to achieve what I need to do.
Given that Excel is NOT going to go away BUT Microsoft cannot be relied upon not to betray its users by, for instance, doing away with VBA and COM support, it would be great if someone, somewhere (and I wish I had the skills) could create some proper support for Excel from Delphi.
Related
We have Product Backlog in an Excel Spreadsheet that we also commit to SVN, so everyone can open use it and update to latest version.
The problem we have is:
How do you enable Excel spreadsheet to be simultaneously used by many people and not override each other's data. Some kind of merging data? Is it at all possible?
We would like to keep our data in Excel spreadsheet since it provides all the functionality we need. We tried Google spreadsheets that are much better in terms of collaboration, but they don't support cell drop-down values...
EDIT
I've found out that I can also save my Excel file in XML format (XML Spreadsheet 2003). This format preserves all formating, formulas, conditional styles etc. Only graphs fall out, but I can live with that. I suppose that SVN Merge tools more or less support XML file merging when multiple people work on it.
So I thought of this feature, but I don't know how much does Excel change XML document between saves. Maybe it reorders a lot of stuff hence making it impossible for merge tools to work with expected results. Anyone has any experience with this?. It would basically make it possible for multiple people working on the same file.
EDIT2
I've tried managing Excel spreadsheets in a plain XML file (XML Spreadsheet 2003 file format) that makes it possible for SVN to merge it since it's a text file. I've learned to not use conditinal formatting, because it doesn't always work, so you'll have problems reopening the file. Also graphs won't be preserved.
Testing outcome: I've tried simultaneous work on the same XML, but Excel works with these files in no particular order (looks like it converts it to Excel and back to XML when saving it), so even if you make a small change to data, your XML will look completely different. So this format is a no go for collaborative purposes with merge capabilities.
FYI note: I've moved my operations from Excel to a more collaborative and similarly capable solution: Google Spreadsheets. Simultaneous collaboration is just working and working great (hopefully Microsoft will someday make collaboration this way on all its Office range) and it supports versioning as well as all the capabilities I'm using in Excel. COnditional formatting and with some additional script code I can use conditional formatting on whole rows based on single cells as well, so I can easily background colour whole rows of when set particular story status to "Completed".
Excel data can be merged but it's somewhat hard and error prone.
What I've found useful is to put the svn:needs-lock property on that kind of hard-to-merge files. The file will be read-only by default to communicate "do not edit this" and acquiring a svn lock makes it a read-write file, while preventing other users from acquiring a lock at the same time. It's a communication mechanism, not a 100% foolproof merge conflict prevention mechanism.
More information in svnbook.
Excel has a built-in share/merge capability (search the help for "share workbook") but it's meant for live copies on shared drives. Still, for this particular problem that might be a better solution than SVN.
Excel doesn't support the scenario you described, you need to use a multi-user database, or an proper work-tracking system. There are some hosted ones you can try (Jira, FogBugz) but you're not going to get multi-user with Excel (unless you use the shared spreadsheet option, but as David Moles said, that's meant for shared xls files on a file server).
SVN allows eveyone to get the latest version and work on the latest version without a "checking out" / "make read-only". This enables multi-users working the same file, and would assume that the Merge features only work on Text docuements (code files)
(This is based on my possibly limited experience with SVN)
Its probabaly time to upgrade from an Excel system to a more systematic multi-user database system.
I wonder if you're using the right tools for the job. Perhaps you should be investigating some Scrum tools to help you manage your projects.
Excel works well in a simple, non-shared scenario but I would investigate something more powerful to allow your team to manage the scrum process simultaneously.
After hearing about this project on several podcasts, I've started using Zen. It's based on a kanban board.
I'm pretty sure TortoiseSVN has some hooks (merge-docx.js, et al) which enable you to merge complex file types like office documents.
Or perhaps something like this (at a push)
have you looked at the Greenhopper planning backlog tool.
You could try XLLoop. This lets you write excel functions (UDFs) on an external server. It includes server implementations in many different languages.
So instead of keeping the data on your spreadsheet, you could have it stored in an external database then create a template excel sheet that calls the functions on your server. This will allow the data to be automatically updated and also allow multiple people to use the sheet at the same time.
BTW, I work on the project so let me know if you have any questions.
Looking to develop server-side application that will process documents. The source documents are mostly MS-Word 2003, 2007, i.e. the MS version of Docx. Want the server application to be able to run on both linux or windows.
Wanting to know what is the best tool or library for reading and writing MS-Word files under linux. Compatibility is the most important consideration. Must preserve source document formatting including tables.
I have seen a kind of similar post here but it was specific to python. I don't care what language or libraries are used as long as they are available for windows and linux.
Must not require MS-Word to read the Word files.
I am aware of Open Office but am looking for a solution which has a high degree of compatibility with MS-Word files.
Also just came across this solution which looks promising. aspose.com
Anyone had any experience using Aspose.Words for Java or similar 3rd party packages? It looks promising but it's pricey at over $2K for an OEM subscription. That said if it delivers as advertised it may still be the best solution out there.
thanks
There have been a couple of suggestions but nothing so far which would fits the bill (or the budget).
Have you considered using b2xtranslator to convert binary .doc to .docx. (On Linux, you'd have to run it in Mono)
You could then use POI or docx4j to manipulate the docx. Not a solution if you need to save as .doc though (unless you use OO for that bit)
Ok, I'll have another go at an answer ;-)
What about using unaconv
It can convert any document OpenOffice can read to any document OpenOffice can write. You should be able to use that to convert both to/from MS-Word documents (providing they're not overly complicated which I've found open office can't handle very well).
The only caveat is that you need to have an instance of OpenOffice running on the linux server for unoconv to interact with.
Mono has recently acquired support for the system.io.packaging .net class, which allows some degree of manipulation of docx files. If the kind of thing you want to do is add/remove resources and recurse over the text, it's probably the right thing.
Although I've done VBA projects within a single application for both MS Access 2007 and Excel 2007, I haven't automated multiple applications at the same time. The generalized project is to open access, run some update queries that appends data to various tables. Then Excel needs to get the data. Some formating changes are needed in Excel, such as grouping that doesn't automatically change the date range. Finally, I plan to build it out such that the excel file will be emailed automatically.
Some parts of this are clear how to accomplish it, such as Excel will be getting the data by ODBC from Access. But where should the master VBA live? I could have a button in Access that would start running Access VBA, but is it a good practice to have the Access VBA start manipulating Excel? Does that make it difficult to debug?
To get started from Access, add a reference to the Excel object library. Then use the object browser to familiarize yourself with how the Excel object hierarchy looks from within Access. It is going to be somewhat difference, because the top-level object in Excel code is implicit (as it is in Access), and has to be explicitly referenced when coding in Access.
The Access Developers Handbook has excellent chapters on automating the rest of Office from Access.
Last of all, it's best once you've coded using the reference to the other app's automation library to help you program, you want to switch to late binding so you can remove the reference. This means not using any of the external library's specific data types (you mostly use plain object variables) and using none of the constants defined in the external library. My production code with late binding usually includes the early binding version commented out, alongside the late binding version.
I think the keywords you are looking for is "microsoft office automation".
Make an application in you favorite programming language that supports COM interfacing and then use automation to do the manipulations in the different office applications.
Look here c# How to access an excel cell? and here How to read data of an excel file using c# ? and Google.
I have recently done something quite similar to this, and have found that I can output HTML with built-in CSS for formatting that loads quite nicely into Excel. I used Access to allow users to build their required output, only opening Excel to display the results. You may find that HTML output makes for nicer emails.
Do all the work in Access VBA. See the following URLs for some sample code
Modules: Sample Excel Automation
Modules: Transferring Records to Excel with Automation
Also note that if you are dealing with multiple versions of Excel late binding becomes a necessity. Late binding means you can safely remove the reference and only have an error when the app executes lines of code in question. Rather than erroring out while starting up the app and not allowing the users in the app at all. Or when hitting a mid, left or trim function call.
This also is very useful when you don't know version of the external application will reside on the target system. Or if your organization is in the middle of moving from one version to another.
For more information including additional text and some detailed links see the Late Binding in Microsoft Access page.
As far as emailing goes there are a number of options at the Microsoft Access Email FAQ
You may put the code in Access, or Excel. In my experience, that is easier to work with than splitting the code between the two (which also works).
If you find that the automation code runs too slowly, you can split the code, so that Access is run by functions in Access, and Excel from functions in Excel, and the master code just runs routines in both. In this case, you can put the master code where-ever you get the nicest user interface for starting things. I've used C,Access,Word and Excel, and where you put the start button doesn't matter a whole lot if all the code is somewhere else.
If your users or maintainers are more familiar with one application, you may wish to put your main or master code there, but more often I find it is better to put the main or master code with the guts of the application, so that I can have no code at all in the other partner.
From the brief description, it sounds like more work will be done in Excel, so I would put all the code there.
Pulling the data out of Access doesn't even need an Access Application object - a DAO or ADO or ODBC object will work (or even DDE), which will be much faster, much more robust, much easier, much better than having both applications open and automating one from the other.
If you start from Access, it sounds like this project will require an Excel automation object. That works well now, but it is still much slower and more fragile doing it with just Excel and a DAO object.
I haven't done VBA for ages although Access was my entry-point into the world of programming. Moving from Access 97 to Visual Basic was easy and I remember that I wrote a lot of stuff using Access more like a VB-form for doing many kinds of tasks (not necessarily database-stuff).
This is the reason why I think you should stick to Access and from there, with help of VBA, do your stuff in Excel etc..
Good luck
I would like to be able to link some data from a custom application to a cell in Excel.
What tech would you use to do that? I'm primarily a Unix-developer, and don't know win32 technologies in depth. But as far as I understand DDE would be the easiest, even though it is very old tech.
Being able to use it with other office suites such as OpenOffice would be a big bonus.
What does it mean "link data from a custom app to a cell in Excel"?
Do you want the Excel sheet to display data that is generated by some external app?
If that is the case there are a number of options.
The Excel data provider is one way to go. This works if you have lots of data you'd like to load. For just one cell, it may be overkill.
If the external data is accessible via a network interface (let's say, HTTP), then you can write some Excel macro code to consume it. You could use the ServerXmlHttp object to consume it, from within Excel. Some guidance on that is HERE.
Another way to do it is to expose the data via a custom COM object, a re-use construct that is very consumable by Excel. You'd have to write some code to do it, but it's not too complicated. You can write it in .NET, C++, Javascript, VBScript, PerlScript, ...
In .NET I would use the COM libraries for Excel. You can use Workbook, Worksheet and Range objects to address specific cells in specific worksheets and workbooks. These work well from .NET (especially VB.NET).
The COM interface is really easy. You start by recording a macro, and do what you intend to do. After that translate the generated code into the programming language of your choice.
All solutions I have seen here have the approach to push the data to excel.
Why not give the responsibility of pulling this data to Excel itself?
Excel does have the ability to add data through oleDB and ODBC. (at least from the version I know) I can only test that in Office2007, the only version I have on my machines.
All you have to do is add this option to the spreadsheet with the data tab.
Pretty simple. That way you also free yourself from the burden to maintain the code in your app to open Excel, run some code to push the code into the cells etc.
You could probably record a macro for this and run that when the excel sheet is opened.
Easiest way to link to a cell value is via the .net data providers in Visual Studio 2008. Here is a link to some of the more common methods. Link
It's going to be difficult to try and make this available to open office as the data providers aren't the same.
I'd recommend using Java/JVM and its Apache POI library.
It can read and write Excel files and it's pure cross-platform java.
It's pretty reliable in practice.
http://poi.apache.org/
Jonatan,
If the source application stores the data in a database, or a text file, it will be possible to use excels' build in data functions to retrieve it. Otherwise I would agree with Dayton on the integration with VS2008. You can use VS2005, however it will require you to install VSTO.
Regarding DDE - aside of being almost obsolete, there are problems while using different versions of Excel and different languages, which will require you to use different keywords for the same operation
Just to clarify: DDE works with open office. I am a Bloomberg user, and I opened an office 2003 spreadsheet in open office which contained bloomberg links to stock prices updated via DDE, and it works like a charm.
I have an old Excel 4 macro that I use to run monthly invoices. It is about 3000 lines and has many Excel 5 Dialog Box sheets (for dialog boxes). I would like to know what the easiest way would be to change it into VBA and if it is worth it. Also, if once I have converted it to VBA, how to create a standalone application out of it?
I have attempted this before and in the end you do need to rewrite it as Biri has said.
I did quite a bit of this work when our company was upgrading from Windows NT to Windows XP. I often found that it is easier not to look at the old code at all and start again from scratch. You can spend so much time trying to work out what the Excel 4 did especially around the "strange" dialog box notation. In the end if you know what the inputs are and the outputs then it often more time effective and cleaner to rewrite.
Whether to use VBA or not is in some ways another question but VBA is rather powerful and extensible so although I would rather use other tools like .NET in many circumstances it works well and is easy to deploy.
In terms of is it worth it? If you could say that you were never ever going to need to change your Excel 4 macro again then maybe not. But in Business there is always something that changes eg tax rates, especially end of year things. Given how hard it is to find somone to support Excel 4 and even find documentation on it I would say it is risky not to move to VBA but that is something to balance up.
(Disclaimer: I develop the Excel-DNA library)
Instead of moving the macro to VBA, which uses a COM automation object model that differs from the Excel macro language, rather move it to VB.NET (or C#) running with the Excel-DNA library.
Excel-DNA allows you to use the C API, which mirrors the macro language very closely. For every macro command, like your dialogs, there is a C API function that takes the same parameters. For example, the equivalent of DIALOG.BOX would be xlfDialogBox - there is some discussion and example in this thread: http://groups.google.com/group/exceldna/browse_thread/thread/53a8253269fdf0a5.
One big advantage of this move is that you can then gradually change parts of your code to use the COM automation interface - Excel-DNA allows you to mix and match the COM interfaces and C API.
AFAIK there is no possibility to somehow convert it. You have to basically rewrite in in VBA.
If you have converted to VBA, you cannot run as a standalone application. As VBA states Visual Basic for Application, it is living inside an application (Word, Excel, Scala, whatever).
You have to learn a standard language (not a macro-language) to create standalone applications. But you have to learn much more than the language itself. You have to learn different techniques, for example database handling instead of Excel sheet handling, printing instead of Excel printing, and so on. So basically you will lose a lot of function which is evident if you use Excel.
Here is a good artikel about this topic: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa192490.aspx
You can download VB2008-Express for free at: http://www.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx