Spreadsheet 9.0 view with interactivity using Excel 2003 ?

[BhavdeepSachdev]

Hi I've been searching the web for a couple of days and found this to be the
best place to ask my question.

We have many clients, all of them using different verisons of Excel - 2000,
XP and 2003. We currently have a system in place where the users upload excel
files to a web server and a VB 6 program checks the files for errors.

We now want to update the system and want to reduce our burden as well as
our client's burden by enabling them to fill in information using excel in
the browser and get immidiate results about the errors and corrections.

The spreadsheet component fills in every requirement of ours except for the
confusion on Licensing and Interactivity.

Our shop of course have all versions of MS Office, and we have no problems
developing in Office 2000 using version 9.0 of the OWC. But the main question
is that if we use the Spreadsheet OWC ver 9.0, would clients with Office XP
and Office 2003 be able to use the interactivity ? OR will all clients have
to have Office 2000 installed ?

I would appreciate any extra suggestions too.
Thanks,
Bhavdeep.

 

[Alvin Bruney - MVP ASP.NET]

There shouldn't be any licensing confusion. Applications developed with
version 9 are not valid without office 2000, for other versions you will
need to write a sniffer routine and programmatically determine if they have
a licensed version. Version 9 is not forward compatible with any other
version hence the reason to write a sniffer routine. You will need three
sets of code branches in your application, one for each version of the
components.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney

Shameless Author Plug
[The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET]
www.lulu.com/owc, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET

 

[BhavdeepSachdev]

Thank you Alvin, for the response. I had read your sniffer routine earlier. I
don't want to sound unintelligent, but I have a couple of questions related
to that:

Can one server service the request for the 3 different versions of OWC ? I
mean can all the versions of OWC exist on the same server ?

Also, about the sniffer, when we write
objOWC = CreateObject("OWC11.Spreadsheet")
Doesent that actually create an OWC11.Spreadsheet object on the server ? How
can we check which version is the client using ?

BTW, I have put in a request for your book and should have it by the end of
next week. I hope I'll have a lot less questions to ask after that.

Another question: If I program using ver 9.0 and the client has Office 2003
with OWC 11.0, can they have interactivity if they install the OWC 9.0 on
their computer ?

Thanks in advance,
Bhavdeep.

There shouldn't be any licensing confusion. Applications developed with
version 9 are not valid without office 2000, for other versions you will
need to write a sniffer routine and programmatically determine if they have
a licensed version. Version 9 is not forward compatible with any other
version hence the reason to write a sniffer routine. You will need three
sets of code branches in your application, one for each version of the
components.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney

Shameless Author Plug
[The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET]
www.lulu.com/owc, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi I've been searching the web for a couple of days and found this to be
the
best place to ask my question.

We have many clients, all of them using different verisons of Excel -
2000,
XP and 2003. We currently have a system in place where the users upload
excel
files to a web server and a VB 6 program checks the files for errors.

We now want to update the system and want to reduce our burden as well as
our client's burden by enabling them to fill in information using excel in
the browser and get immidiate results about the errors and corrections.

The spreadsheet component fills in every requirement of ours except for
the
confusion on Licensing and Interactivity.

Our shop of course have all versions of MS Office, and we have no problems
developing in Office 2000 using version 9.0 of the OWC. But the main
question
is that if we use the Spreadsheet OWC ver 9.0, would clients with Office
XP
and Office 2003 be able to use the interactivity ? OR will all clients
have
to have Office 2000 installed ?

I would appreciate any extra suggestions too.
Thanks,
Bhavdeep.

 

[Alvin Bruney - ASP.NET MVP]

The sniffer routine creates a test object on the client. If the object
creation fails, the end-user system needs to be updated with the components.
The sniffer can be made to test for interactivity as well.

Basically, the sniffer routine determines what the end user system supports.
If you are writing server side code, you adjust your code appropriately to
target the end user system. For instance, an end-user system that has
version 11 supports more functionality than version 9 so your version 9
targetted code would support a reduced functionality set.

objOWC = CreateObject("OWC11.Spreadsheet")
objOWC.MajorVersion/MinorVersion gives you all the build info

Another question: If I program using ver 9.0 and the client has Office 2003
with OWC 11.0, can they have interactivity if they install the OWC 9.0 on
their computer ?

No, interactivity for version 9 requires Office 2000. For versions 10 and
11, the black book discusses a way to force interactivity inspite of the
version installed on the end user system. In fact, teh end-user does not
necessarily need a version of Microsoft Office installed for that matter.
--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney [MVP ASP.NET]

[Shameless Author plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now Available @ www.lulu.com/owc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET - Wrox/Wiley 2006
-------------------------------------------------------

Thank you Alvin, for the response. I had read your sniffer routine earlier. I
don't want to sound unintelligent, but I have a couple of questions related
to that:

Can one server service the request for the 3 different versions of OWC ? I
mean can all the versions of OWC exist on the same server ?

Also, about the sniffer, when we write
objOWC = CreateObject("OWC11.Spreadsheet")
Doesent that actually create an OWC11.Spreadsheet object on the server ? How
can we check which version is the client using ?

BTW, I have put in a request for your book and should have it by the end of
next week. I hope I'll have a lot less questions to ask after that.

Another question: If I program using ver 9.0 and the client has Office 2003
with OWC 11.0, can they have interactivity if they install the OWC 9.0 on
their computer ?

Thanks in advance,
Bhavdeep.

There shouldn't be any licensing confusion. Applications developed with
version 9 are not valid without office 2000, for other versions you will
need to write a sniffer routine and programmatically determine if they have
a licensed version. Version 9 is not forward compatible with any other
version hence the reason to write a sniffer routine. You will need three
sets of code branches in your application, one for each version of the
components.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney

Shameless Author Plug
[The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET]
www.lulu.com/owc, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

Hi I've been searching the web for a couple of days and found this to be
the
best place to ask my question.

We have many clients, all of them using different verisons of Excel -
2000,
XP and 2003. We currently have a system in place where the users upload
excel
files to a web server and a VB 6 program checks the files for errors.

We now want to update the system and want to reduce our burden as well as
our client's burden by enabling them to fill in information using excel in
the browser and get immidiate results about the errors and corrections.

The spreadsheet component fills in every requirement of ours except for
the
confusion on Licensing and Interactivity.

Our shop of course have all versions of MS Office, and we have no problems
developing in Office 2000 using version 9.0 of the OWC. But the main
question
is that if we use the Spreadsheet OWC ver 9.0, would clients with Office
XP
and Office 2003 be able to use the interactivity ? OR will all clients
have
to have Office 2000 installed ?

I would appreciate any extra suggestions too.
Thanks,
Bhavdeep.

 

[BhavdeepSachdev]

Thank you Alvin,

I remember reading the sniffer routine somewhere, but I cannot find it now.
I tried googling for it with no luck. Do you have a link where I can find it
? And can you give me an idea of how I can "adjust the sniffer code" using
ASP.NET to create an object on the client's machine instead of the server ?

Thanks,
Bhavdeep.

The sniffer routine creates a test object on the client. If the object
creation fails, the end-user system needs to be updated with the components.
The sniffer can be made to test for interactivity as well.

Basically, the sniffer routine determines what the end user system supports.
If you are writing server side code, you adjust your code appropriately to
target the end user system. For instance, an end-user system that has
version 11 supports more functionality than version 9 so your version 9
targetted code would support a reduced functionality set.

objOWC = CreateObject("OWC11.Spreadsheet")
objOWC.MajorVersion/MinorVersion gives you all the build info

Another question: If I program using ver 9.0 and the client has Office 2003
with OWC 11.0, can they have interactivity if they install the OWC 9.0 on
their computer ?

No, interactivity for version 9 requires Office 2000. For versions 10 and
11, the black book discusses a way to force interactivity inspite of the
version installed on the end user system. In fact, teh end-user does not
necessarily need a version of Microsoft Office installed for that matter.
--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney [MVP ASP.NET]

[Shameless Author plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now Available @ www.lulu.com/owc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET - Wrox/Wiley 2006
-------------------------------------------------------

Thank you Alvin, for the response. I had read your sniffer routine earlier. I
don't want to sound unintelligent, but I have a couple of questions related
to that:

Can one server service the request for the 3 different versions of OWC ? I
mean can all the versions of OWC exist on the same server ?

Also, about the sniffer, when we write
objOWC = CreateObject("OWC11.Spreadsheet")
Doesent that actually create an OWC11.Spreadsheet object on the server ? How
can we check which version is the client using ?

BTW, I have put in a request for your book and should have it by the end of
next week. I hope I'll have a lot less questions to ask after that.

Another question: If I program using ver 9.0 and the client has Office 2003
with OWC 11.0, can they have interactivity if they install the OWC 9.0 on
their computer ?

Thanks in advance,
Bhavdeep.

There shouldn't be any licensing confusion. Applications developed with
version 9 are not valid without office 2000, for other versions you will
need to write a sniffer routine and programmatically determine if they have
a licensed version. Version 9 is not forward compatible with any other
version hence the reason to write a sniffer routine. You will need three
sets of code branches in your application, one for each version of the
components.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney

Shameless Author Plug
[The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET]
www.lulu.com/owc, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc
Forth-coming VSTO.NET
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------




message Hi I've been searching the web for a couple of days and found this to be
the
best place to ask my question.

We have many clients, all of them using different verisons of Excel -
2000,
XP and 2003. We currently have a system in place where the users upload
excel
files to a web server and a VB 6 program checks the files for errors.

We now want to update the system and want to reduce our burden as well as
our client's burden by enabling them to fill in information using excel in
the browser and get immidiate results about the errors and corrections.

The spreadsheet component fills in every requirement of ours except for
the
confusion on Licensing and Interactivity.

Our shop of course have all versions of MS Office, and we have no problems
developing in Office 2000 using version 9.0 of the OWC. But the main
question
is that if we use the Spreadsheet OWC ver 9.0, would clients with Office
XP
and Office 2003 be able to use the interactivity ? OR will all clients
have
to have Office 2000 installed ?

I would appreciate any extra suggestions too.
Thanks,
Bhavdeep.