Greetings,

Has anyone ever started Excel running on the same server as D3?

I have a need to format some Excel data and make it pretty,
something that I cannot do in D3. I have an Excel Macro
that will do the job and I think I can do it using the "!" command
in D3, but I was hoping someone might have some experience.

I want to start Excel, run the macro, then stop Excel

I can make the macro autorun and I can arrange for the macro to
stop Excel after it's finished, or on error.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Larry Hazel

Hi Larry,
we use accuterm to run excel
here is the code

EQUATE STX TO CHAR(2)
EQUATE CR TO CHAR(13)
EQUATE ESC TO CHAR(27)

SCRIPT = 'X = SHELL("C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT
OFFICE\OFFICE\EXCEL.EXE'
SCRIPT = SCRIPT : ' C:\TEMP\MySpreadSheet.xls",1)'
PRINT ESC : STX : 'P' : SCRIPT : CR :

Hope it helps.

Peter

Homer L. Hazel wrote:

Peter,

Thanks. That's one of the incredible uses of
my favorite Terminal Emulator and so much more.

But, that starts Excel on the user's computer, not
on the D3 server.

I actually have a small program that will start
Excel on the server which I wrote since I posted
the first message, but it starts Excel on the Server's
monitor. I'd hoped to avoid that.

It will also have macros, so anyone know how to
avoid the 'can I use these macros?? are they safe??"

Larry Hazel

"Peter" <peter (AT) ramto (DOT) com> wrote

Hi Larry,
If you're talking about that warning message that comes up when you open
Excel stating that "This file contains macros.... Do you wish to continue",
the only way I know of to get rid of that message is to set your security
level to low in Excel (Tools ==> Macros ==> Security...)

Dave


"Homer L. Hazel" <hNoOmerlhANTI (AT) SPAMcox (DOT) net> wrote

Just an idea:

You can put your macro in a vbscript and then run that script from your
D3 server, something like this:
execute "!c:\myscript.vbs"

This way, the script can do the job even without opening Excel

HTH

Cristian A. Clavero

Homer L. Hazel wrote:

Larry, this is a big topic and maybe we can discuss it off-line. In
short, you can use MS Office like this but it's highly discouraged
without knowing the ramifications. See this page for some info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;257757

If you're going to start Excel, perform some operation, then stop
Excel, it might be better to just start it as a Windows Service once,
then pass messages between it and D3 as long as required. This
reduces the performance impact of initialization and closing,
multi-user contentions, and some of the issues that can occur when
applications like this start and they expect a user to be sitting
there to answer "Are You Sure?" type questions.

Remember that I've had a lot of experience in this area, particularly
with NebulAnalysis, which is no longer actively offered, but strangely
there have been a lot of requests for it over the last couple months
and I might bring it back in conjunction with Office 12. See these
links for some inspiration:
http:// removeNebula-rnd .com/products/analysis.htm
Or audio/video entertainment:
http:// removeNebula-rnd .com/demos/nebulanalysis

HTH,
My best,
Tony


"Homer L. Hazel" <hNoOmerlhANTI (AT) SPAMcox (DOT) net> wrote:

Dave,

That's what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

Larry

"Dave Mitchell" <mitch500 (AT) sympatico (DOT) ca> wrote

Ciristian,

You mean that I can use a VB script to call forth the
functionality of Excel as in formatting headers, managing
page layout, changing fonts and shading and stuff
without invoking Excel?

Do you have a sample?

Thanks,
Larry Hazel

"cc" <cristianclavero (AT) topmail (DOT) com.ar> wrote

Tony,

Thank you.

I'll check out the references you included.

Larry

"Tony Gravagno" <g6q3x9lu53001 (AT) sneakemail (DOT) com.invalid> wrote

Dave Mitchell wrote:

Or digitally sign your VBA macro. You'll need a certificate from a
provider such as VeriSign.

http://www.verisign.com/products-ser...s/code-signing
/digital-ids-code-signing/index.html

We're required to do this to meet some of customer's security standards.

--
Kevin Powick