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Create dynamic Web-based spreadsheets

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Tell us what you think about creating dynamic Web-based spreadsheets, as featured in the Web Development Zone newsletter. Have you created a dynamic-based spreadsheet using Excel? If not, do you plan to do so in the future?

19 replies

by danny.scott

Just wondering. Is there MS Office; specifically Excel licensing issues related to this approach? What if you had 1 user; 5 users; 50 users; 100 users; etc. use this web spreadsheet application?

by phil_perkins_1

The article only provides a means of supplying data to the client in MS Office compliant XML through the web and changing the MIME type to reflect what application should handle this data. Licensing issues are outside the scope of this article.

by masinick

I think the ideas and methods you mention certainly have plenty of merit. I think that it is great to have the capability to easily share content from spreadsheets and other objects on Web pages.

The one concern I have about this approach is interoperability. Depending on how much content from the spreadsheet is placed on the Web page, whether through XML or not, or whether it uses XSL or not, it may affect the ability of the page to be correctly rendered on platforms that use a different architecture.

I'm wondering how well the features you mentioned in the article will come through on other Web browsers, such as Opera, K-Mellon, Mozilla, Netscape, and others? What about if you take it even further? What about if you are runninga Web browser, even an industry standard browser, on another platform, such as a UNIX or GNU/Linux workstation or an IBM mainframe system? Are the techniques described in the article features that will function across such diverse platforms? If the answer is yes, then this is terrific stuff. But if not (and I'm concerned about that case), as appealing as these ideas sound, if they aren't transferable to other hardware and software platforms, I think their usability is extremely limited.

Can you comment on that. please?

by phil_perkins_1

Well, in many of the environments that I've worked in, most of the users are running Windows machines with MS Office already installed. In the article I mention that MS Office XP/2000 must be installed on the client. As far as worrying about what browser, if you're concerned about the interoperability of the browser and the supplied XML, that's why I mentioned that the content-disposition should be "attachment" rather than "inline". If the browser has a problem handling that, then I say the browser has a problem. All this code is, is nothing more than MS Office compliant XML. You could save the same XML as a ".xsl" and open it in MS Office XP/2000, and get the same results.

by phil_perkins_1

This has nothing to do with web components. All I'm supplying is pure XML and changing the MIME type of the supplied data. The browser can handle the rest. If you're worried about security, then you shouldn't be supplying sensitive data over the internet. This application should provide a great foundation for routine tasks in a corporate intranet. Security should be handled within the intranet (i.e. firewalls, usernames/passwords, etc.).

by itinko

I went to a MS seminar on this topic and when we found out that web clients had to have an Office license almost all of us simply got up and walked out of the room ! The only thing this is good for is in house application, you can't expect clients in the real world to have Office or a particular version thereof.

by phil_perkins_1

Of course, you have to have a license. I mentioned that you have to have MS Office XP/2000 installed on the client machine. Simply having Office on a machine means that you probably have a license unless you have pirated software (which, if I mustsay, is illegal). The actual issues about licensing of MS Office is not the scope of the article. The article provides an easy solution for creating dynamic spreadsheets based solely on MS Office compliant XML.

by u55911

i have been building accounting software; a "daily cash report" (excel/access) for a local convienent store, and have been a little confused on how the results from the dailycash will be stored. thanx for the input.........I must get to work to get paid.........Justin

by phil_perkins_1

Thank you for finding insight into my article. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Remember, you're not limited to just supplying data...you can also provide graphs, etc. I've built a complete intranet solution for a very large, well-known organization using these techniques to provide reports, graphs, etc. It proved to be more capable than another well-known reporting tool.

by tnewman

This article looks useful but is missing a few details. Is there anyway to get examples of the files your building or would anyone else be willing to share their work?

Thanks,
Todd Newman
tnewman@kaspermachine.com

by morrisje

I seem to run into trouble at step saving Excel sample file. Using Office Prof 2000 Excel, I had to check box selection:sheet in order to check box "Add Interactivity". In notepad I did not have a param name XMLData, instead I had HTMLData. I save copied and saved the HTMLData parameter value to 2 types of documents: using notepad and pro2000. In either case when I viewed it in IE 5.5 I saw nothing.

I am an experienced computer type but a newbie in this area.

thanks for any help

Jean from the land of aloha

by confuxion

This is the type of application I've been looking to find for a long time, being an Excel aficianado and geek. I am of the 'learn-by-example' type, however, and don't think I'll get the true scope of how this puppy works unless I have an example todissect. Is there any way you, or anybody for that matter, could craft a remedial example for others to view/download? Regardless, thanks for the intuitive idea.

by phil_perkins_1

Several of you have asked for examples. The only code I have is proprietary, so I'll have to come up with some new code. I will post this code Thursday night for anyone who wants it. The code for the web side will be ASP with Access data backend,but it can be used as a reference. Thanks.

by vcr

As I am completely new to this game and this example sounds like an answer to a small prayer, can I ask where will you post it so that I can pick it up?

by phil_perkins_1

Okay, sorry it took me so long to get back. I created a complete (almost) step-by-step example document with included source code/data. Until I determine where I'm going to post this, you can contact me at my email address to get this in the form of a ZIP file.

by phil_perkins_1

If you type this link into your browser address bar, you must enter the file name as "DSSExample.zip" (with capital letters) or else you won't get the file.

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