current community

your communities

more stack exchange communities

Stack Exchange
tour help
careers 2.0
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Stack Overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

I have an Excel file we consider a template file. Currently, user downloads the file and then manually inputs data into the file column/row by row. What I would want to do however is save this template to a database, and then, on request, dynamically create an excel worksheet using this saved template, and then proceed to populate the columns and rows of the templated excel file with data from other database tables. the following are some of the questions I currently have --

How do I extract the schema for the template from the excel template file? How do I create an excel file using the extracted template information? How do I ensure that when I start to populate the created file with data, I start on the right row and column? How do I solve these please? Any good examples of how this could done, out there?

Also, where is the Microsoft Office SDK download site? I have been searching all day.

share|improve this question
    
Do you already have a database to store this data ? Do you really need data to be in the form of an Excel spreadsheet ? Can users not fill a web form which will then populate your database (i.e. eliminating the middle man (Excel)) ? I'm just trying to figure out exactly what would be the best way to achieve whatever you want to achieve before giving thoughts to this. Oh and this is probably too open for SO, expect to get this flagged. –  Alexandre P. Levasseur Jul 21 '12 at 1:45
    
Well, many of our clients use excel for their business needs, so many of them require that we transmit them an excel file(they are not all too technical). The Database on our end of things so we not continue to pile up excel files all over the place. We want to import all client data straight from their excel files into our custom DD, do all our work from there, and then re-create the final formatted excel file at the end of it all for the client. –  Kobojunkie Jul 21 '12 at 1:55
    
Here, I think this might help you: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa168292%28office.11%29.aspx As for how to do it, I would personally abuse named ranges if I had to do this as it simplifies a lot the retrieving of the data to just call ranges by their name to populate your database. Then this is as simple as calling your ranges and creating queries to input data into your DB. –  Alexandre P. Levasseur Jul 21 '12 at 2:15
    
Actually, my previous link is a bit dated, this should be more current: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wss56bz7.aspx –  Alexandre P. Levasseur Jul 21 '12 at 2:17
    
I will try this –  Kobojunkie Jul 21 '12 at 2:49
add comment

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.