Editing Cells with Known Positions

The following sample performs the exact same functions as the POST Example, except it goes about it in a very different manner. Instead of just submitting the changed cell information to the server, the entire workbook is uploaded and the values are read from it by ExcelWriter on the server-side.

Run the Sample

The sample works as follows:

1. Form.asp loads and you can select an Employee ID for the individual whose information you would like to edit. To allow a file upload from the client, an external object called SoftArtisans.XLWAssistant is required to be installed on the client machine. This object is included with ExcelWriter in XLWAssis.cab so that your users can install XLWAssistant on-demand when they first visit form.asp, or any page you choose. This object must be installed in order for the VBA code in template.xls to function properly.
   
   To create a client-side instance of XLWAssistant, use the <object> tag with XLWAssistant's unique class id:

   	<OBJECT classid="clsid:381A579F-C095-433d-8AEF-96CED6EC227F"
   	codebase="XLWAssis.cab" id="XLWAssistant"></OBJECT>

   The codebase attribute specifies XLWAssistant's location. When you upgrade XLWAssistant, add the new version number to the codebase value. This will allow an automatic update of the client version. To find the version number:
   
   
   1. Extract XLWAssis.dll from XLWAssis.cab
   2. Right-click XLWAssis.dll
   3. Open Properties
   4. Select the Version tab
   
   For example, if the version number is 1.1.1.1. Add "version=1,1,1,1" to the codebase attribute:

   	<OBJECT classid="clsid:381A579F-C095-433d-8AEF-96CED6EC227F"
   	codebase="XLWAssis.cab#version=1,1,1,1" id="XLWAssistant"></OBJECT>

   * SoftArtisans.XLWAssistant is not available in ExcelWriterLE.
   
   
2. Form.asp submits data to GetEmployeeDataSheet.asp, which uses ExcelWriter's ExcelTemplate object to populate the form with the chosen employee's information.
   
   
3. In Excel, you can edit the employee's information. In template.xls, the VBA code in the btnUpdate_OnClick subroutine saves the workbook to the client's disk, and uploads the file to UplUpdate.asp. The VBA code in this version of template.xls uses the XLWAssistant object to perform the file upload.
   
   
4. In UplUpdate.asp, SoftArtisans FileUp receives the file and saves it to the server's disk:

   Set oFileUp = Server.CreateObject("SoftArtisans.FileUp")
   oFileUp.Form("FILE").SaveAs Server.MapPath("./upload.xls")

   SoftArtisans FileUp is a server-side file-transfer component. Note that SoftArtisans FileUp is not included with ExcelWriter.

   ExcelWriter opens the file, reads the values from the cells, forms a SQL UPDATE statement, and executes the query, updating the data source.

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