Good evening,
I have the following problem to solve:
I want to add to an Excel file the contents of a bunch of user-generated .txt files. These files are generated throughout the day and sent over FTP to a folder, which is being constantly monitored by the program to see if there are new additions.
If the program finds new .txt files in it, it opens the Excel file which is to be edited, adds the info and then closes the Excel, saving the changes.
At the same time, users have to open these Excel files to check the new updated info and deal with it accordingly.
The program's execution is somewhat like this:
Infinite loop checking if the folder is empty or contains new .txt files.
If the folder is not empty (hence there is info to be added), it checks whether the Excel file is open or not.
If the Excel file is closed:
Opens it programmatically and adds the info to it.
Saves the Excel file and quits.
Backups the .txt to another folder in case there was some sort of error.
If the Excel file is open:
Keep checking until it is closed.
To check if the folder is empty or not I use: System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries(path).Any()
To check if the Excel file is open I use:
System.IO.FileInfo(path) and a FileStream which, inside a Try-Catch clause, opens the FileInfo in the following mode: info.Open(FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.None)
For the opening, editing and saving/closing of the Excel file I use Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application, [..].Workbook and [..].Worksheet.
The main problem comes when a user opens (through the normal Office Application) the Excel file in the middle of the addition process. I was hoping to find some sort of lockage of said file so the user cannot interrupt the editing process.
Any ideas on how to combine both types of opening/editing the Excel file?
Thank you so much in advanced.
TL;DR: How can I prevent, programmatically, a user from opening an Excel file while a program is editing that very Excel? Or at least, open another instance of it so the process is not interrupted?
PS: If any further code should be needed, I'll gladly post it :)
I think you need a better solution. It sounds like you are maxing out the capabilities of Excel. You would be better off, if possible, to use a database.
Related
I'm using the following the code to open a file that resides elsewhere on the computer:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(PathToOpen)
Where PathToOpen is the full address to the file I wish to open. This appears to work as intended for any file type that has an application installed that can open the file.
Whilst this works OK, if the file is on a networked drive, I want my VB.Net code to check if the file is currently in use, if so display a message. Currently what happens is if a second user tries to open the file, it opens read-only (a word file for example) which is handled outside of my application. I want to intercept before the file is opened and stop the process there.
Is this possible at all?
You are basically asking if it's possible to monitor files on a system that doesn't even belong to you ?
Word does know about a file already in use because it creates a hidden file next to the one you open. if there is already a hidden file, it means the file is already in use.
Other applications use different ways of knowing if a file they can use is already opened somewhere else.
In order to do what you want to do, you need to know how all the applications handle this problem...
A possible solution would be for you to create a small hidden file next to the file the user wants to open (just like MS Word does). Only problem, you need to destroy the file when it's closed by the user, and you have no way of knowing that...
A specific xlsm workbook crashes when I try to save, save as, or when I open the VBA editor. I've tried disabling macros, removing auto calculations, etc. I can't actually get to the code to see if there's a bug causing the crash due to the editor itself causing crashes.
Edit: Also forgot to mention there are links to another workbook in the file - but removing auto-updating/calculating upon save doesn't seem to help. Also, I'm able to modify the workbook, I just can't execute the macros, save, or open the VBA editor.
Edit2: Some additional info. I tried deleting all worksheets and still have the same problems so there must be something wrong in the code.
Looking for a solution to salvage the workbook.
Remove the VBAProject.bin file from the .xlsm file:
copy the .xlsm file
change the extension of the copy to .zip (say Yes to the warning about changing extensions)
open the ZIP file
open the xl folder
cut the VBAProject.bin file and paste it to somewhere outside the ZIP file
rename the ZIP file back to a .xlsm extension
You should now be able to open the .xlsm file in Excel but it will no longer have any macros.
It is theoretically possible to reconstruct the macros from the VBAProject.bin file using the resources linked to in this answer but this may involve considerable effort
I have a report that is built off of an excel macro that is triggered when the file is opened. I use a Windows Scheduled Task to open the file which triggers the macro and then closes the file.
As part of the process within this marco one of the worksheets is saved as PDF file to our network. This file is then linked to through our sharepoint site. It appears that if someone is viewing this pdf and the macro is triggered it doesn't update the PDF File since it is opened. I am handling this error by saving a backup file to a different folder with a different name.
I'm trying to find a good way to work around this. Is there a way to export and save the PDF as read only through the excel vba? Is there a setting in Sharepoint that would make the file open as Read Only?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I have an application (running in IBM Notes, using Lotusscript etc.) that create a new Excel object via OLE automation. In my app I create a new Workbook and saving it to a temporary folder (I am saving it as Excel Worksheet w/o macros -> type 52) so that the resuting file is sth. like that:
tmp_abc1234.xlsx
Then I open the file in Excel programmatically. I have an Excel Addin (filename is "Teamoffice.xlam" loaded where some macros reside I will trigger in the custom save actionbar button. In this save method I also call the save function:
Call ActiveWorkbook.Save
Call ThisWorkbook.Save
For some reason Excel creates a file named "Teamoffice.xlsm" in the "My Documents" folder. The file itself cannot be opened in Excel ("wrong file format error") - of course, it's an Addin!
This works well if I have only one Excel document open from my application. If I open a second (or more) I run into trouble: everytime I save on of those secondary opened (or newly created) documents Excel asks me if I want to overwrite that "Teamoffice.xlsm" file.
I added VBA code to ma macro that detects if this file is there and tries to delete it. With no luck of course, as the first instance of Excel is locking that file already. Overwriting the file when aswering the Excel-question dialog works though, but I don't want that question to appear.
Excel doesn't behave like that when using it stand-alone w/o OLE.
Several questions resulting from this behavior:
Why does Excel create this file? Can I stop it from doing so?
How can I delete the file even if Excel has a handle on it or
Can I tell Excel not tohave a handle on this file (if it's there) and let me kill it?
Can I suppress the question dialog and always say "yes, overwrite it"?
Office version is 2010 - and it makes me going nuts... so thanks in advance!
p.s.: I am not that VBA pro, so please be as detailed as you can effort :-)
I noticed that
ThisWorkbook.Save
was the reason. If I omit it no file is created. Strange that this saved the Addin file as xlsm file though.
I'm writing VBA codes for multiple Excel spreadsheets, which will be shared with others from time to time. At some point I find there are lots of duplications in my works. So I want to find a way to share codes in a sort of Excel add-in, like the .xla file.
But when I tried to save the Excel file containing shared codes as .xla file, I got some problems:
The file cannot be edit anymore after I save it in the default add-in folder
If I move the .xls file to a folder other than the add-in folder, and open it directly - I cannot use its classes - which creates problems for sharing the codes
Any ideas to create add-ins in a flexible and powerful way please?
Thanks a lot for the help
Not completely sure this is what you're looking for, but ...
(1) save the .xla/.xlam code by clicking the save icon in the VBA editor. HOWEVER, the thing that saves is the thing currently selected in the Project Explorer pane, which lists all open VB Projects and which is usually on the left. Even if you are staring at your just-edited VBA code, clicking the save icon will not save your code unless it is also selected in the Project Explorer pane. You won't get feedback that anything was saved - but you can verify by checking the file timestamp in a separate window.
(2) if you have an *.xls file which (via the formula bar) refers to VBA functions from your *.xla / *.xlam file, then if you open the *.xls file without opening the .xla,.xlam file first, Excel may create external links to resolve the formulas (i.e. referring to a file which is not open). If you have moved or renamed the *.xla file you can get stuck with those "mangled formulas" and need to edit out the pathname links that Excel inserted using a global substitute. If you arrange to open the .xla,.xlam prior to any *.xls file that uses it, you shouldn't have a problem (e.g. by using the default folder).