Modifying a Excel file without opening excel

[Jay]

I have a requirement to modify a generated excel file that is generated by a
reporting tool. My point of entry to the flow is a DLL and since this is a
production server they will prefer if I do this without installing excel in
the server. Is this even possible? If yes, could you point me in the right
direction? I was reading about XLLs but it seems that this is not their
intended use.

Thanks in advance

Jay

 

[Joel]

Can the file be generated as a CSV file? There is no formating in CSV put it
is a text file that can be used by excel and modified like any other text
file.

 

[Jay]

Joel,

Thank you for the response. No I do not have the option of genereting CSV
files. Do you have any idea if it is possible to do what I am asking? (Modify
an excel spreadsheet without openning excel)

 

[Joel]

I think DLL are a good idea. You could use a high level language either
Visual Basic, C++, or C# to produced an executable file (dll or exe) which
can open you XLS files. Excel is an object under windows. You can access
these images through the Macro's running in Microsoft Office products (excel,
word, poin point access) or Microsoft High Level Language Compilers. Al
these products share the DLL (Dynamic Linked Libraries) to access the excel
object. The Visual Basic Compiler and the Visual basic Macros languages are
almost identical and is probably the best approach if you are familar with
the macros.

 

[jaf]

Hi Jay,
The Excel file format is very complex. The are some tools available to
read/write in Excel format. (AKA "biff" format)

Maybe an obvious solution would be to open the file from another computer
which has Excel installed.
Excel doesn't care where the file is as long as you can navigate to it.

John

 

[Joel]

The high level languages by microsoft have built in libraies to handle all
the functions. The compiled VBA by microsoft is almost identical to the VBA
in excel.