On line forms from an Excel spreadsheet

N

NealUK

Is it possible to create an online form on a website from an excel
spreadsheet stored on a server.
Also, is it possible for an outsider to update certain fields?
Any websites that anyone can recommend to offer help, would be much
appreciated
many thanks
Neal
 
A

Andy Dingley

Is it possible to create an online form on a website from an excel
spreadsheet stored on a server.
Also, is it possible for an outsider to update certain fields?

Yes. Excel offers a usable COM programming interface and you can
easily connect to this from ASP (assuming a Windows box and an IIS
server).

There are various issues about performance for doing this on a large
site, about security for a public site, and about multi-user locking.
I wouldn't recommend it in most circumstances, but I'm sure you have
your reasons (hopefully an intranet).

You probably need to read up on three things; ASP coding (use JScript,
not VBScript), Excel coding (the Range object is your friend) and some
COM (Don Box's books are the ones to read). You should also be aware
of the security issues with widespread COM out the back-end of a
public web server, because otherwise you can build some monstrous
security holes.

The skills needed to do this aren't mainstream, although they're far
from rocket science. If you're in the UK, I'm a contract developer and
I'm looking for work :cool:
 
N

NealUK

After thinking about this, i have created a basic template using html (no
excel spreadsheet) at
http://www.epoch2001.fsnet.co.uk/deliveries/delivery.html
What i wish to be able to do, is for the delivery company to enter the
date/time they collected (where it currently says "Not collected") and
instead of a send button, to replace it with a send & update button, that
permanently updates the website. At the moment, once it is sent, the table
resets to the default value.
If someone could point me in the right direction as to how this could be
done, i would be very grateful
regards
Neal
 
A

Andy Dingley

What i wish to be able to do, is for the delivery company to enter the
date/time they collected

Use a database.

Maybe have a facility to download an Excel worksheet, generated from
this database, to extract the updated data from the website. Or you
could write some Excel VBA that did some simple SOAP or other web
service to access the site and extract it as XML / HTML
 

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