filePro out to an existing Excel file

[Robert Haussmann]

> > > Hello all:
> > > I'm wondering if it's possible to get a filepro output
> > > form's output into
> > > an already existing Excel file.  I have an estimating program
> > > that we use
> > > and to date it has proved to be a nice format for the final
> > > product for
> > > most of our customers.
> > > One of our largest customers is now strongly pushing
> > > for the output format
> > > to be in Excel exactly as their form is designed in Excel.
> > > They now  send
> > > us a Request for Quote in an .xls format as an e-mail
> > > attachment.  It has
> > > all the pertinent information on the .xls file with the
> > > exception of the
> > > estimated costs which we're expected to estimate, fill in the
> > > appropriate
> > > blanks and transmit back to them. 


There are a number of options here--the best one depends on whether
or not you are able to modify the source spreadsheet.

If you are, you could add a macro that would look for a CSV file
exported by filePro and would bring that data into the spreadsheet
and place it in the appropriate cells.  Alternatively, if you are
using the Native Windows version of filePro and know VBA, you could
make use of our fPOLEDB product which would allow you to access your
filePro data from within Excel (using VBA).  Of course here again you
would need the ability to change the spreadsheet they are sending
to you if you wanted to automate this (in both cases you would need
to add a macro).

If you cannot modify the source spreadsheet, it is possible that
fileProODBC will do what you want.  However, it is impossible to tell
without seeing the actual spreadsheet.  In this scenerio, you would
have a filePro processing table that would use the Excel spreadsheet
as an external data source.  You could read the appropriate values in
to filePro from the spreadsheet, do your lookups and calculations, and
then write the needed numbers back out to the spreadsheet.  Note
that this solution would 1) require fileProODBC and 2) may be 
difficult if not impossible depending on how convoluted the 
spreadsheet they email you is.

Bob Haussmann
Tabor Children's Services, Inc.