I want to create a program that could generate reports from an ms access database and place it on ms word, how can I do that. Please help, I dont have any idea on how to do this.
If you're doing this from vb.net, it seems to me that it would be simpler to automate Word, which has no difficulty utilizing Jet/ACE data as data source. I don't see any reason to involve the Access application in this, unless you have complex logic that needs to be executed within Access to get correct results in Word. For instance, Word doesn't do parent/child data display very well, but Access reports do that very easily.
Another question is the final disposition of the results. It may be that you don't need Word at all, e.g., if you're using Word for nothing more than generating PDFs. In that case, it might make more sense to create Access reports and output those to PDF (there's an add-in available for for A2007, and in previous versions, you can use the VB automatable PDFCreator, which is free).
In short, my conclusions would be:
if you're just merging data in Word from a Jet/ACE data store, then automate Word.
if you need to execute complex logic, it's probably better to automate Access and either output Access reports directly, or automate Word from Access.
In neither case, I believe, would you be automating both Word and Access directly from your VB.NET application.
You should connect to the Access Database using a Typed Dataset.
Right-click the project, click Add New Item, select Typed Dataset, and follow the wizard.
To control Word, add a reference to Microsoft.Office.Word and use the Application class.
You can build reports in MS Access that have the Export to Word functionality built into them.
You can invoke the report from your code and then call the export functionality and give it parameters so that it will export to a .doc file that you name. You can then invoke MS Word and open the .doc file up for display.
Related
I'm not new to Access, but am very new to VBA coding. Our management software is horrible, but it's the best that is available in the industry and I have created many many reports using Access, but have new problem now.
Attachments in the system are stored in one central location and then the file name stored in a SQL table. I have created queries to pull the full file path including the file name. Would it be possible to use some VBA coding to print all the existing PDFs in sequence from the paths returned in the query?
Thank you for any and all help!
Native VBA controls the collections of methods and attributes from Office.
An existent PDF is not the case (Access can create one or open, but not open and print).
To open a file with full path you will need to perform a select from table and perform a loop to shell open file, after that, sendkeys ^P.
But I strongly recomend to use another tool to do it, like Auto Hotkey or AutoIt.
I want to build an authentication system based on an Excel spreadsheet database. Therefore I would like to know if it's possible to use ADO.NET in the IDE integrated in Excel. (I don't want to use visual basic studio)
If you add a reference to the ActiveX Data Objects, you can use the ADODB suite of objects - Connection, Command, ResultSet etc.
I presume what you'd do is just show the "Login" sheet on opening the file and then, on successful authentication, show other sheets.
As it's Excel though, I'm not sure how easy it would be to bypass for somebody with a reasonable amount of knowledge.
Best of luck with it.
My skill level: basic user of VBA, know next to nothing about SQL (though I’ve recently learned how to execute code, etc).
I’ve created a user interface in an Excel worksheet to allow user input of report variables (dates, etc). These pass into a second Excel worksheet that, through the use of various Excel statements, creates the necessary SQL code. My macro then copies this worksheet and opens Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Rx via a shell command. Currently, I then manually click “connect” on the resultant Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 connect-to-server window (which does not need a password, just requires me to click “connect”), I create a new query, I paste the code in and then execute in SQL. So it is these latter steps (opening SQL, click “connect”, copy/paste code, execute) that I’m trying to automate via VBA.
To offer more context, once the SQL code has run, I then have a second macro that uses the Excel Data Connection wizard to bring the resultant SQL data back into my worksheet. This is working well.
I’ve researched this for several days on various boards. None seem to observe my approach of creating the code in Excel (probably because it is an inelegant approach). Or the post responses are beyond my skill level to understand. But I do fear that I’m asking a question that has been answered before (apologies in advance).
Thanks for whatever advice/time can be offered.
I’m using:
Excel/Office 2010
Microsoft SQL Server2008 R2 (is this the same as Microsoft SQL Server Management Studios? My SQL application shows both names)
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 6.1 Library (this is NOT currently checked off. One post I saw referenced the need for this. I have multiple prior AciveX Library versions available as well.)
What you're doing is very ingenious, but it's probably not necessary. Excel has a number of features for importing external data.
I would look at the Data tab in Excel and the From Other Sources section of the ribbon. You have at least three options: the From SQL Server, From Data Connection Wizard, and From Microsoft Query options.
All of these will set up a connection to a database server and execute SQL against it. They return data to your spreadsheet in different ways.
Where VBA will come into play again is in automating the generation and parameterization of the queries these will execute.
But I would set up something that works, with constants for your parameter values, first, so you get an idea of the possibilities, and then read and research dynamically setting your SQL with VBA.
You might also investigate PowerPivot, by the way.
I am trying to make an application in VB6.0 using MS Excel as database. I have some textboxes on my VB Form to take input from user. I want to store those values in an Excel file. There will be another form where I want to retrieve the values from Excel and display it in textbox/labels.
Can I use SQL queries for inserting/retrieving the values while using Excel as database?
I just need a sample code for understanding the process. Rest I will try to manage.
Thanks in advance.
It's a poor idea.
While you can treat an Excel workbook as a data source via the Jet IISAM or ODBC Desktop Driver this is really meant for simple importing and exporting and has numerous limitations.
Save yourself some grief and just use Jet 4.0 to create and make use of MDB files. No MS Access is required, Jet 4.0 comes preinstalled and has for a rather long time now.
I have a lightswitch project in visual studio 2013, using vb.net. I would like the user to be able to click a button and have lightswitch find an excel file, and upload that file to a sql table according to a pre-determined column mapping.
My preference was to use the Office Integration extension for visual studio, which I got working with VS 2013 by downloading it from this link: http://www.ge.tt/71iuRQv/v/0
However, the documentation and examples for office integration seem to be very heavy on getting an excel spreadsheet into a display in the lightswitch web client, rather than into the sql data table, which is where I need it. Here are the examples I've been following:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bethmassi/archive/2012/07/18/new-and-improved-office-integration-pack-extension-for-lightswitch.aspx
Alternatively, I have an existing stored procedure, and I can request that the server call this stored proc by sending a web API extension from the client to the server. I have this working already for other stored procs, according to examples from Beth Masi and Paul van Bladel. (Stackoverflow won't let me post the links...)
The undesirable part of this approach is that the stored proc is old, and messy.
I've searched and searched, but have yet to find anyone approach this problem for VS 2013 with lightswitch. Any useful advice?
I've used the method detailed by Matt Sampson to store word files and it works very well. Since it just stores the raw binary it should handle Excel files just as well.
If you're creating the table in LightSwitch, use the Binary Type. If you use SQL create scripts use varbinary(MAX).
You need to create a custom Silverlight dialog box to gain access to the OpenFileDialog object. Then open the file in as a FileStream.
Finally, you need to add a handler for the closed method of the control and then show the control to the user. Most likely done in a button. This needs to be done on the main dispatcher.
The code examples are in C# but I just used one of the many available translators out on the web and copy/pasted the VB.NET code.
Another option might be to consider shelling out to the DTSEXEC run-time to execute an SSIS package to perform the upload - especially if the target Excel spreadsheets have predefined layouts and content data types.
Even simpler, you might be able to use the SQL Server BULK INSERT command to get the job done - although that would require a SQL Client connection to your database.
HTH