I have a spreadsheet in Excel that connects to an internal DB using the odbc driver for the software (Action Request System). That works fine. Now I'm trying to move the Excel file to a SharePoint site so that our team can review the data and make notes in the same spreadsheet.
So, first I tried just moving the Excel file to the server, but realized that the connection saved in the file was pointing to the connection file on my computer. So I moved that to the SharePoint site, and this seems to be working... Except:
1) On some of the computers, it opens just fine. But I'd prefer it if the dialog that asks for the login and pw for the DB was customized.
2) On other computers, the software and drivers are installed, but not showing up in the user source list, so it throws an error. When the user goes to create a new connection, the driver is there, (so its not in the first list, but it is in the larger list).
3) Macs can open the file, but Excel 2008 can't do the macros and connections.
4) Opening the same file from the same site throws the Trust Center warning each time, even on the same computer/same user.
Is there a way to do any of the following?
Have a non-macro that keeps the user from saving (and thus overwriting) the sheet until it is confirmed that the user won't make changes to the connections/macros?
Allow the user to connect from a local config (in case they can set one up that works when the main one fails) so that they can connect using that one but not screw it up for everyone else.
Set the trust settings (local or on server, I suppose) so that any files from a specific SharePoint are always trusted?
Finally, and this is the big one...
Can you create a connection using a driver not on the local machine? If the driver is installed on a remote server, can Excel use that one? If that were the case, that would solve almost all other problems (Unless you're on a Mac).
I feel like I'm going at this slightly wrong, but since the team all need to see each others notes, our only other solution is to upload the data (from the DB) into a MySQL db so that they can make notes from their browser. This makes it more universally available, but forces us to script a lot of functions that are standard in Excel and create redundant DBs.
Wow! Access to the ARS via ODBC! I suggested that feature to the architect when I worked at Remedy HQ back in the nineties. Great times.
Anyhow, I think your approach of sharing an Excel sheet that connects to an ODBC source is not the easiest path. (As you've been discovering.) ]
ODBC is always a local driver, afaik. A client locally connects to ODBC. ODBC then can use the network to connect to the DB.
Instead, I suggest that you investigate setting up Access with a table that is remotely connected to the ARS system. You could then remotely open the Access table via file sharing as opposed to a dbms-connection. I believe that this would be easier to get going than your current path.
HTH,
Larry
It sounds like you are using a User DSN to make the connection. You can switch to a DSN less connection by using a connection string. If you need some help with that, can you post the code that needs modified?
First, thanks to both users that provided answers. Both of you were really helpful in getting my mind around the problem.
So, it turns out that while you can't easily connect to Action Request DB directly, AR does support Web Services.
Rather than attempt to make Excel, Access, PHP, or any other system deal with creating a Soap Client and handle the work themselves, I came up with an alternative that I think is fairly clever, if I do say so myself:
1) Created a php script that calls the Web Service with the requested data,
2) The script parses the response into a more generic XML form,
3) script echoes out the xml
4) Name the script "AR_Data_Request.xml"
5) Configure the directory, via the .htaccess file, to treat xml files like php
Now, I have a static xml file which always contains the most up-to-date data from Action Request. I can point any other apps (specifically Excel) to that xml file instead of having to write VBA code to query the web service directly (and still have to do it again for php).
The only problem is that I can't get the php to connect to the Web Service (doh!) but that will be my very next question.
Thanks again!
Related
Several years ago, I coded from scratch a complex Excel-based system for my organisation, which used an Access-compatible database as a back-end. This was in response to the broken Excel "shared spreadsheet" functionality, which would frequently crash and cause data corruption or loss.
The working system was (and still is) stored on our shared network drive.
It has now been decided that the shared network drive will be decommissioned, and all shared files will be on SharePoint. For the most part, this works well, and all other files have successfully been transferred. However I have not yet managed to find a way to make my system (Excel front end and Access back end) work with it.
When I try to run:
Dim LocalCnn As New ADODB.Connection
With LocalCnn
.Provider = CheckProvider(strPath:=DBPath)
Select Case Mode
Case "RW"
.Mode = adModeReadWrite
Case "RO"
.Mode = adModeRead
End Select
.Open ConnStr ' ERROR LINE
End With
.. then I get an error
ConnStr evaluates to:
Data Source=https://myorganisation.sharepoint.com/sites/proc2126/Shared Documents/Archive/Test.xlsmDB_ADMIN.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Database Password=mypassword
It is possibly something to do with the space in the file path? This is not something I can do anything about, as the highest directory I have access to is "Shared Documents" (with the space). The exact error message I get is:
Run-time error '-2147467259 (80004005)':
Automation error
Unspecified error
I have tried to Google the problem, connecting to a database file using VBA on SharePoint, but it seems to be inconclusive whether it's possible.
To clarify: this needs to work 100% within SharePoint, without having to download files to the local drive first.
Grateful for any advice you can provide!
NOTE: I am NOT using the MS Access program at all. This question has been tagged with ms-access because the mdb files are Access-compatible, that's all. I'm using an Excel front end, but using VBA to directly connect to the database files, bypassing the Access software entirely.
Tough luck! Access is only supported on local drives or SMB shares with leasing disabled, and previous options to run Access on SharePoint have been removed (since 2010 afaik).
You can directly migrate the data from Access to SharePoint lists (Database tools -> Move data -> SharePoint), and then use the undocumented WSS option of the ACE OLEDB provider to connect to SharePoint lists directly. See connectionstrings.com on the ACE OLEDB provider at the very bottom.
I highly recommend not doing this, and either get your organization to get a decent RDBMS that can be used as a backend (best) or get them to not fully remove the SMB share. Migrating an application to SharePoint lists will come with substantial slowdowns, limitations in what queries can run, and general misery, even though it can sort-of work (speaking from experience, unfortunately).
I am working on Win 10 upgrade activity. As you know we can select application for file extension. So, those file will open on that app. e.g. html files only open in Chrome when user double click on that.
We can create XML file (DefaultAppAssociations.xml) and place it in C:\windows\system32
Now, I got the request to make one application default but let user decide if they want any other app. Is there any way to handle such things because defaultappassociations.xml will hard code this. Every time machine restart and it will set the same.
This is only possible as part of the operating system deployment or rather for newly created user profiles.
The command (official documentation):
Dism.exe /online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:<path to exported xml>
However as I said you cannot alter existing profiles that way. Altering existing profiles in any way that is not the force via gpo is afaik not possible anymore because Microsoft does not want to allow it. A pretty stupid decision but at least you can tell whoever made the request that it is by MS design.
I have an access database that users are connecting to with excel files. I have way of managing people who are logged on using Access. However, I do not have a way to manage people who are connected to the database using excel. It is my front in so I am not worried about the Data I just want to be able to edit forms and add features.
Splitting your database will help...https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/Split-an-Access-database-3015ad18-a3a1-4e9c-a7f3-51b1d73498cc
But you can also look into making the FE you release to users as an mde or accde file. These will compile your VBA code and not allow users to enter design mode to change anything so these files are slightly smaller and more secure.
Then you can make changes to the regular FE mdb or accdb files that you have, test those changes and then when you are ready to release a new version, publish them as mde or accde files and copy it over the old version (or make back ups first, and then replace).
I am running an automated Data job on a windows server that outputs a SAS dataset everyday. On top of this, I have an Excel Report connected via Excel's Local Data Provider.
My problem is, that the Data Connection needs to be manually refreshed by a person with SAS installed on their PC. I have tried writing a piece of SAS code that opens the Excel file on the server and then triggers a piece of VBA that did the refreshing, before closing and saving. This works perfectly if I'm logged into the server. But it doesn't seem to work if nobody's signed in. I believe this has something to do with having an active user session.
UPDATE
The process that I use to connect to a local data source from Excel, looks like this:
Data Connection Wizard
Select SAS Local Data Provider from OLE DB Providers
Add the Route to my SAS Dataset as data source
Select My source table and create a Pivot Report
Is there any way to do something like this?
When you want to run Excel unattended, thus no interactive user is logged on, you can do this with a Windows service. You have to ensure some settings for Excel, as well as it is important how you start excel.
Be aware of Microsoft does not support, or even suggest you to do something like this. Excel is a client software, it is exactly the opposite of a piece of software that is easy to maintain running as as service. Read this excellent article Considerations for server-side Automation of Office about the topic. Even when a little old (talking about Office 2003) it is still state of the art.
Please consider these conditions:
You cannot use the System or Network account, you have to let the windows service running under an account that at least have excel started once. This cannot be done with the named ones (as they cannot be used as interactive users)
Excel has to be opened at least once with the user under with the windows service account will run. You'll have to configure dcom settings, open vba once to initialize it, and most probably set some settings like "trust vba model" to be able to programmatically access Excel
last but not least when starting Excel you have to start it with loading the user profile. The Process.Start method in c# allows exactly that by just setting a boolean value to true.
Doing it like this, Excel should just start fine and update data connection with the VBA.
You may want to implement that windows service in c#, as it is really easy, have a look: Creating a Basic Windows Service in C#.
When using c#, be aware of you have to correctly dispose interop objects, pretty good described in How to properly clean up Excel interop objects
Wanted some opinions on which method is a better practice. We have a sales report that MUST be generated in a very specific format (down to the row colors and fonts).
I already have written a macro which pulls from our database and populates the entire workbook in about 15 seconds. The question is how should it be populated?
1) Process server-side: Users initiate the request on the intranet page. ASP.NET opens the workbook template, executes the macro and serves back the final sheet.
2) Process locally: Users download the blank template, run from their desktops which automatically connect to the database.
I like the first one because I can enforce the template, timing, users, and security of the data. But is running Excel automation on an internet web server recommended? I like the second option, but I'm afraid of losing standardization as template sheets begin floating around the company.
As for server side:
I highly.. HIGHLY.. recommend checking out the OpenOffice/LibreOffice XML format for spread sheets.
You can use the localc binary in headless mode to convert the XML file to XLSX or what have you. I use it to create PDF files instead of using ReportLab.
Alternatively here are some other projects that attempt to write to Microsoft formats directly:
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt
As for client side:
If you expect the user to be only using Excel and not any other spreadsheet software then go ahead and use an ODBC data source. ODBC will have to be configured per user unless you use some fun VBScript to pull the data from an HTTP server every time it is loaded. There is also the option of making an XLS spreadsheet that simply holds the data and including it into an XLS document as well which would be both a server and client XLS requirement.
Go for server side. Makes information simple to archive and share and will most likely be multi-platform as well.
If you like to use your first option, then you want to avoid using VBA on an installed instance of Excel on the server. This is extremely resource intensive and does not scale well. Instead, if you are writing ASP.NET code, then you should try using the Microsoft Office Interop functionality that is built into the .NET framework. It should possible to adapt your existing VBA code to run under ASP.NET with some changes, but you will have a much more reliable product in the end.
Example Code
However, as #whardier points out in his response, if this were for a large scale or public site, the suggestions he makes would be much more suitable and would scale much further.