Dan_Musicant
Mon Feb 07 10:53:32 CST 2005
On 6 Feb 2005 11:40:03 -0600, Mike McBride <mcmike@netcene.com> wrote:
:Hi Dan,
:Are the requirements for your client's Excel request be that it be a
:FPD based solution? Where I work, our main company wide applications
:are all FPD based but we do our reporting and data extraction with
:VFP8 and soon VFP9. With VFP you have the option of automating the
:process entirely by opening Excel as an automation object and
:controlling it via Foxpro. This gives you the best of both worlds,
:your client gets to keep their legacy FPD app at the same time they
:get the benefits of what can be done with VFP.
:
:If this sounds like something you want to follow I recommend
:"Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro" from Hentzenwerk. It
:will get you a good explanation of how Office and FoxPro can work
:together.
:mike...
:
:
http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/autofox.htm
:
Thanks, Mike. The guy who developed this FPD application over 10-12
years did do some things in VFP. He too wasn't employed by the company,
per se. He left and I was brought on (he showed me the ropes for a
couple of days) and I've been asked to keep the ship afloat, so to
speak. Occasionally, they ask me for enhancements, and this would fall
in that category.
It did occur to me that I could try to do this with Foxfire! or VFP. I
think it's a question of what would be most cost-effective, what would
save them the most money. I have to look at it from that perspective
right now. So, I figure I'll just try to adapt the printing routines to
export to Excel. That is, copy the printing procedures and turn them
into Excel export procedures, figuring that will take the least time. It
may not be spiffy in terms of headings and file names, but I think only
one or two people are apt to use these reports and they can surely learn
to live with the shortcomings. Hopefullly, that's going to prove to be
doable over the next couple of days.
Dan
:On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 17:40:57 GMT, Dan_Musicant <man@privacy.net>
:wrote:
:
:>My client runs a mature many-featured FPD application and I've been
:>asked to modify a couple of the PRG-generated reports. These reports use
:>?, no FRX involved, and are powered by cursors for the data. The reports
:>have numerous options driven by selector windows. Once the selections
:>are made, the user picks between Screen and Printer. I'm being asked to
:>include an option to create an Excel spreadsheet. I did something like
:>this for them a couple years ago. It was a bunch of work, but I came up
:>with a satisfactory solution. I thought I'd ask here before really
:>getting into this.
:>
:> The printed version supports some stuff that I don't know how I'd
:>support in a spreadsheet. I mean, I can do a COPY TO FILE (lcFilename)
:>TYPE XLS, and if my fieldnames are sufficiently descriptive, it might be
:>satisfactory. But it would be nice if I could include nice things like a
:>page heading and a total line at the end. Is that stuff possible without
:>some weird kludge?