Attaching Excel File to finished Visual Basic project - vb.net

Question

I've created a Visual Basic project with many forms. In the project I write information to an excel file that I reference the location of on my local (C:) drive where the excel file resides. By reference I mean, I open an excel instance ten provide the source=local path on my hard drive. My question is how do I attach the excel file to the project so I don't have to reference the local location and can run the program on a different computer. In other words how do I bundle the excel file with the program? And how would I change the call to the excel file once I have it "bundled" to the program?

Answer 1

Add the excel file to the project. Go to solution explorer and right click on the excel file and select properties. Change the Copy to Output Directory to Copy Always. Now the file will be in the same directory as your exe. You can use Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly to get the directory.
To add the file to the project:
Right click on project > Add > Existing Item > Your Excel File.xls
To include the file in build:
Right click on the file > Properties > Copy to Output Directory. Set this value to either Copy always or Copy if newer.
Here is the code to get the path to the excel file:
Dim exeDir As New IO.FileInfo(Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.FullName)
Dim xlPath = IO.Path.Combine(exeDir.DirectoryName, "Your Excel File.xls")
xlPath should now be the full path to the excel file.

Answer 2

MODIFIED REPLY AFTER USER COMMENTS
1) First create a Setting (named say MyExcelFile) to save the Name and Path of your excel file.
2) Now you can use My.Settings.MyExcelFile to refer to your excel file path.
3) If excel file is not found at the desired location, you can reset it by opening a File Open Dialog and asking the user to specify the file location.
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
If Not IO.File.Exists(My.Settings.MyExcelFile) Then
Dim ofd As New OpenFileDialog
ofd.Filter = "Excel Files (*.xls, *.xlsx)|*.xls; *.xlsx"
ofd.Title = "Specify Excel File Location"
If ofd.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
My.Settings.MyExcelFile = ofd.FileName
My.Settings.Save()
End If
End If
End Sub

Answer 3

i think iam not really getting what you mean but if you need to open the excel file with one click in the app and you dont want to write the path of the excel file (may be because you want you app portable) so the answer is to
put the excel file anywhere in the project folder
add existing item (*.* filter) and select the excel file
change the properties of the excel file build action: resource Copy to output directory:copy always
open the properties of the solution and click resources the drag the file and drop it
use the (using system.reflection & using system.io & using system.resources)
then write the code like this
string sPath = Path.GetTempFileName();
File.WriteAllBytes(sPath, Properties.Resources.excel File name here);
then take that (spath) and use it as your path so then you can change the project location with the excel file inside it and it will still be working without writing a constant path for it