Online development with Excel

[Travis]

I want to build a web app based on an Excel spreadsheet using VBA and
some Excel Solve functionality. Should I try to build my own online
spreadsheet? Or is Microsoft about to release some nifty online
development components compatible with Excel and VBA?

I have implemented a fairly comprehensive spreadsheet for generating
financial plans based on some inputs about investments, personal
profile, risk tolerance, financial goals etc. The spreadsheet used the
Solve functionality of Excel and some VBA to iterate through Solves in
one place. Other than that, there is mostly just a lot of text and
simple calculations involving cells.

Now I want to make this into a web application with a spreadsheet
interface that allows some dynamic updating of data (not formulae),
and maybe a questionnaire front-end instead of simple spreadsheet
input. My question is - should I try to invent my own web app
spreadsheet (possibly using components) and separate out the complex
algorithmic components which would be too cumbersome to re-invent in
my spreadsheet? Or is likely Microsoft will Excel-compatible web app
components for development and if I wait, I could save myself
re-inventing the wheel?

If I don't wait for Microsoft, what are the best tools for creating a
web app (it need not be Windows server based).

Travis

 

[Norman Yuan]

When people talk about web app, it usually means a client client app, the
main app process (accessing data, business logic...) run on web server side,
the user side is usually a web browser, which does only the data
presentation, i.e. rendering HTML tagged text stream into a viewable weg
page. Of course, with the evolution of web technology, some sort of browser
side process (javascript code or embeded Java applet/ActiveX control/.NET
win form control, can be added at user side, but there are many limitations.
In this sense, I do not think your Excel app can be easily turned into a web
app without re-write almost whole thing, and you may have to give up your
Excel sheet app entirely. Yes, MS provides a Office component that look
closely like a speadsheet and can be incorporated into web page, but it does
not have as powerful as Excel sheet.

One option for you is to place youor data on the web server and your Excel
sheet that contains the app. Then you build a tru web application, so that
when user request your application, the Excel sheet is populated with
required data (you need to use VSTO and Excel2003's server document feature.
Do not automate Excel at server end), and then downloaded to user's computer
and run there (user need Excel installed of course). If the user data need
to be stored back to web server side (for example a database), then you can
make your Excel app do this by providing web services, another type of web
application. You can use VSTO project to customize your Excel app to go
online by consuming web services.

So, the summary:

1. Do a real web app (thin client app). You probably need to give up
whatever you did in your Excel sheet.
2. Keep Excel app as fat client app, add web services consumming
fuctionalities to it, and then build needed web services as web application
to support your Excel sheet's needs.

 

[JP]

You can save a workbook/worksheet as a webpage with built-in
interactivity (in Excel 2003, not sure about other versions). Just
press F12 and change "Save as type" to "Web Page." Check the "Add
interactivity" box before saving.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP052673981033.aspx

--JP