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oharris
08-18-2006, 07:57 AM
I'm building a solution that imports data from an excel spreadsheet into a project server file. The code is working great thanks to some help I received on here, but now I'm running into another problem. The production server doesn't have Excel installed, and I need the Excel Object library installed to make my code work. I asked about just installing Excel on the server, and was told since it was a remotely accessed server, we would have to put something like 150 licenses on it at a huge cost. I don't need the whole application, just the object libraries. Is there a way to install just the object libraries? Is there a licensing issue with them?

Bob Phillips
08-18-2006, 08:16 AM
I'm building a solution that imports data from an excel spreadsheet into a project server file. The code is working great thanks to some help I received on here, but now I'm running into another problem. The production server doesn't have Excel installed, and I need the Excel Object library installed to make my code work. I asked about just installing Excel on the server, and was told since it was a remotely accessed server, we would have to put something like 150 licenses on it at a huge cost. I don't need the whole application, just the object libraries. Is there a way to install just the object libraries? Is there a licensing issue with them?

I won't pretend to be a licensing expert, but two thoughts. First, I would think th object libraries are part of the product, so the same licensing considerations would apply. Secondly, why do you think you only need the object libraries, I struggle to imagine anything that you can do with them without the application.

oharris
08-18-2006, 09:12 AM
I won't pretend to be a licensing expert, but two thoughts. First, I would think th object libraries are part of the product, so the same licensing considerations would apply. Secondly, why do you think you only need the object libraries, I struggle to imagine anything that you can do with them without the application.

What I mean is, I don't need to open the file on the server other than doing it through code. I'm not changing anything in the XL sheet, nor am I reading any charts or anything like that. I just need to read the data out of it. Does excel viewer (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C8378BF4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en)have any object libraries with it? It ceratinly has all the functionality I need and it's free.

Bob Phillips
08-18-2006, 09:50 AM
What I mean is, I don't need to open the file on the server other than doing it through code. I'm not changing anything in the XL sheet, nor am I reading any charts or anything like that. I just need to read the data out of it. Does excel viewer (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C8378BF4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en)have any object libraries with it? It ceratinly has all the functionality I need and it's free.
Then you could use ADO to read it. You could probably do that from VBScript, which doesn't need a license.

But again, I am confused. If you just need to read it, why? On a server there doesn't seem much logic in that to me. Are you saying that someone will view that on the server, that seems a mis-use of a server to me. If it is an Excel file, you can read it from a client Excel application over the network, if it isn't an Excel file, you can read it from the appropriate client product, again over the network.

mdmackillop
08-18-2006, 10:02 AM
All of our XLS data files, some XLA code files, MDF data files etc. are stored on the server, but none of the Applications are there. They are all on the Client PCs as XLD says.

Killian
08-18-2006, 10:42 AM
... a solution that imports data from an excel spreadsheet into a project server file.
I'm also a bit confused about which files are where... or why you would need the object library on the server.

oharris
08-18-2006, 12:28 PM
OK, let me try and explain. The server has MS Project Server on it, and it's on an isolated domain, so I have no network connectivity to it. I connect to it using Remote Desktop Connection and I log on locally to it. I'm not sure why it's set up that way, but that's how it's set up. (It's also running Project Web Access, which is how most people get to it.) The inputs I get come in Excel spreadsheets. Right now, we copy and paste those inputs which is a painful error prone process. I'm trying to write a piece of code that will allow me to read the Excel file input into project server programatically which will reduce both time and errors. I have developed such code on my PC using Project Professional and Excel, and it works, but it uses the excel object libraries to read the spreadsheet, and those are not present on the server where this code needs to run. If there is a way to do that without the object libraries, or without Excel being installed on the server where the code has to run, I would love to hear about it.

Bob Phillips
08-18-2006, 01:30 PM
OK, let me try and explain. The server has MS Project Server on it, and it's on an isolated domain, so I have no network connectivity to it. I connect to it using Remote Desktop Connection and I log on locally to it. I'm not sure why it's set up that way, but that's how it's set up. (It's also running Project Web Access, which is how most people get to it.) The inputs I get come in Excel spreadsheets. Right now, we copy and paste those inputs which is a painful error prone process. I'm trying to write a piece of code that will allow me to read the Excel file input into project server programatically which will reduce both time and errors. I have developed such code on my PC using Project Professional and Excel, and it works, but it uses the excel object libraries to read the spreadsheet, and those are not present on the server where this code needs to run. If there is a way to do that without the object libraries, or without Excel being installed on the server where the code has to run, I would love to hear about it.

Seems to me that the simplest way is to connect the server to the network. To me, a server ain't a server if it on the network, it's a PC.

oharris
08-18-2006, 02:02 PM
Seems to me that the simplest way is to connect the server to the network. To me, a server ain't a server if it on the network, it's a PC.

I would agree, but I'm not the one making the desicions. I'm just trying to deal with what I've been given.

Bob Phillips
08-18-2006, 02:59 PM
I would agree, but I'm not the one making the desicions. I'm just trying to deal with what I've been given.

Sometimes you have to go back and argue an alternative. It is not always a good idea to try and fir a quart into a pint pot.