read folders and any document properties from excel? - excel

Question

I am wanting to try something and I'm fairly sure it's possible, but not really sure!!
In MS Excel (2003) can I write a VBA script which will open a location (eg: s://public/marketing/documents/) and list all the documents located within there (filename)?
The ultimate goal would be to have the document name, date last modified, date created and modified by name.
Is this possible? I'd like to return any found values in rows on a sheet. eg: type: FOLDER, type: Word Doc etc.
Thanks for any info!

Answer 1

Done that recently. Use the DSOFile object. In Excel-VBA you first need to create a reference to Dsofile.dll ("DSO OLE Document Properties Reader 2.1" or similar). Also check you have a reference to the Office library
First you may want to select the file path which you want to examine
Sub MainGetProps()
Dim MyPath As String
MyPath = GetDirectoryDialog()
If MyPath = "" Then Exit Sub
GetFileProps MyPath, "*.*"
End Sub
Let's have a nice Path selection window
Function GetDirectoryDialog() As String
Dim MyFD As FileDialog
Set MyFD = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
With MyFD
.AllowMultiSelect = False
.Show
If .SelectedItems.Count <> 0 Then
GetDirectoryDialog = .SelectedItems(1)
End If
End With
End Function
Now let's use the DSO object to read out info ... I reduced the code to the bare necessary
Private Sub GetFileProps(MyPath As String, Arg As String)
Dim Idx As Integer, Jdx As Integer, MyFSO As FileSearch, MyRange As Range, MyRow As Integer
Dim DSOProp As DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties
Set DSOProp = New DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties
Set MyRange = ActiveSheet.[A2] ' your output is nailed here and overwrites anything
Set MyFSO = Application.FileSearch
With MyFSO
.NewSearch
.LookIn = MyPath
.SearchSubFolders = True ' or false as you like
.Filename = Arg
.FileType = msoFileTypeAllFiles
If .Execute() > 0 Then
MsgBox .FoundFiles.Count & " file(s) found." ' to see what you will get
For Idx = 1 To .FoundFiles.Count
DSOProp.Open .FoundFiles(Idx) ' examine the DSOProp element in debugger to find all summary property names; not all may be filled though
Debug.Print .FoundFiles(Idx)
Debug.Print "Title: "; DSOProp.SummaryProperties.Title
Debug.Print "Subject: "; DSOProp.SummaryProperties.Subject
' etc. etc. write it into MyRange(Idx,...) whatever
' now hunt down the custom properties
For Jdx = 0 To DSOProp.CustomProperties.Count - 1
Debug.Print "Custom #"; Jdx; " ";
Debug.Print " Name="; DSOProp.CustomProperties(Jdx).Name;
If DSOProp.CustomProperties(Jdx).Type <> dsoPropertyTypeUnknown Then
Debug.Print " Value="; DSOProp.CustomProperties(Jdx).Value
Else
Debug.Print " Type=unknowwn; don't know how to print";
End If
MyRow = MyRow + 1
Next Jdx
DSOProp.Close
Next Idx
Else
MsgBox "There were no files found."
End If
End With
End Sub
and that should be it
good luck MikeD