Read in Excel spreadsheet as XML...

[Blakk_Majik]

Hi all, looking for a little advice.

I just got off the phone arguing with one of our server engineering guys, because they won't install the 12.0 oledb driver on the servers. He basically told me that Microsoft does NOT support Office components installed on servers, because Office is specifically designed to work with clients only.

My first question is, is this true? I read some things about it on the web, but it looked more like Microsoft didn't support installing the actual Office suite on a server (which is understandable). I don't understand why it would be such an issue to install a driver that let me read/write office documents.

If this is true, can someone point me to a good resource for reading/writing Excel spreadsheets as XML files. It seems XML is surely becoming a standard, so I would like to learn how to do more with it. I'd also like to get away from all the "connection string" crap that seems to come along with each release of Office.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

Mods, I did not know exactly where to put this, so please move to an appropriate forum if necessary.

[si_the_geek]

OLEDB is a completely different technology to Office, and they are not actually related to each other.

OLEDB is a database connection/interaction technology, and the provider you are using is capable of treating Excel files as a database. Assuming it is a Microsoft provider, it does not use Office to do that - it is all built in to the provider itself.

I don't know what limitations your provider has, but I doubt that it is unsupported on server OS's.


However... why are you using Excel files in the first place?

Depending on what you are doing, it may be better to use an actual database, or perhaps .CSV files (or maybe XML files, but it is doubtful if that would give any benefit).

Mods, I did not know exactly where to put this, so please move to an appropriate forum if necessary.This forum seems apt at the moment, but may not be later - which language are you working in?

[RobDog888]

Office does install on Servers, particulary with one running Terminal Server services. MS even has licenses for Office on Terminal Server instances.

http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/office_terminalserver.html
Sigh. I'm still confused. "Volume licensing is for big customers, so we'll be buying individual copies.. But exactly HOW do I install these licenses?", I pleaded.

"You don't have to install them", she answered.

Light dawns.

"Are you saying I buy five retail copies, go to the TS, do my 'change user /install', install ONE copy of Office, put ONE license key on it, do 'change user /execute' and then put the other four copies in the filing cabinet?", I asked.

"Yes. You just need them to be legal for an audit."

Sheesh. Why can't they just say that in plain English? Well, maybe because they really don't want you to know that because it makes you realize that you could run a hundred users or more with one license if you don't care about the legality.

My customer cares about legality and so do I, so we'll put the unused copies on the shelf.

Remember - OEM licenses are no good. The licenses also have to match exactly: having a Windows XP Office license doesn't give you the right to run Win 2003 Office on the TS. Everything has to match before you file it away.


Sharepoint is considered an Office app and does install on a server, in fact Office does have some server versions that work with the client versions:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb931736.aspx

Here is an article with demo code to use Excel 2003 to save to an XML file using VBA:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa203742.aspx

So you see, Excel 2007 is not required to provide the same functionality as 2007's xml functions, just takes a bit more code in pre-2007 versions.