I am working on a project, and I need something like office web app , I don't know if I can make it myself , how to read office file formats and convert it to html5.
It's a very significant project to convert arbitrary Office documents to HTML 5.
Office itself can generally save in HTML format. You can most likely use the Interop libraries provided by the various Office products to save as HTML. Look at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel._workbook.saveas(v=office.11).aspx
If you want to do this from scratch (without using an existing implementation or the Interop libraries), you can look at the Open XML format
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205(v=office.12).aspx
Remember MS has developed solutions like Office 365 for Cloud. Also, you have Google Docs to "see" and (of course) edit documents online, but it has its limitations. For example, there may be problems with Excel macros and other advanced features.
What do you exactly want to? and What is the complexity level of your documents?
Related
I'm the new maintainer of an application that was previously done by a contractor. The application was developed using VBA inside an Access project. It consists completely of forms (one of which is opened using autoexec macro) and stuff like click handlers. I don't see any use it makes of Access functionality except for accessing the tables using ODBC table linking done in Access.
These are the reasons I would like to convert this application to a standalone application if possible:
There is no version control at all, just multiple copies of the same project with an incrementing number appended to the filename
The VBA IDE is super annoying
I think the code could then be migrated to more modern languages like C# or VB.net making it more maintainable
Is there any way to convert this to a separate Windows application (I guess using WinForms as that seems to be the same as the forms in VBA) that can be maintained in Visual Studio?
Access for 20 years has supported the standard ‘Microsoft source code control interface. This is outlined in this post:
Version control for VBA file
And this one here:
How to implement version control in Access 2003?
There really little or no reason why Access + VBA, or vb.net can’t be used with source code control. However the SCC add-in that was part of Access was depreciated in 2013. So for versions after 2010, then you can use a script to export the objects. This works quite well – I am using GitHub with Access. So you need a script to export objects now that the SCC add-in is not included in versions beyond 2010 and it works rather well. Access can view each object as "logical" separate. So having all parts in a folder, a zip file, or the Access continuer is moot - don't fall for the physical vs logical concept here that so many people fail to grasp.
•The VBA IDE is super annoying
Hum, never really had much issue with it. I spend good parts of my day using VS2013 and vb.net, but for the most part the VBA IDE is fine for most Access applications. Can you give an example of what feature or something that you find bad with the VBA IDE?
•I think the code could then be migrated to more modern languages like C# or VB.net making it more maintainable
I can’t see why code written in c++, or Pascal or VBA is going to be more or less maintainable? You have to give an example of what you mean here? Maintainable code is maintainable if it is COBOL, Pascal, or VBA.
I guess using WinForms as that seems to be the same as the forms in VBA
No, Access does not use winforms.
Access as a developer tool not really different then say using FoxPro, or say Delphi. Such code and systems can be re-written like any other software development system would require that I am aware of say in the last 30 years of desktop development.
As a general rule, something written in say Delphi, or Access + VBA is not going to by some act of magic is going to be converted to WinForms and .net. That goes for just about any IDE and system I am aware of.
So software in the general computer industry never worked this way in the past, and thus Access is really much the same as most everything else in this regards.
I have done a fair bit of Automation programming using Access to drive the operations of other Office programs. This has been straightforward because the references needed are specific Microsoft programs and I get help learning the type libraries from the Developer Reference Help pages and exploring the classes, methods, and properties in the object browser.
I've also used type libraries from Lotus Notes and Adobe Acrobat to integrate specific functions of those programs, but I needed to use SDKs to understand those objects and methods.
Now I'm looking to automate a web browser control in future projects. I can find specific code samples if I search very specific topics, like [vba] http post web form, but what I'm really looking for is a higher-level review of type libraries and active-X controls. I've found snippets of code using SHDocVw and MSHTML, but I am looking for some guidance on which type libraries to use in this area and how to explore other possibilities.
I have used the Web Browser control in Access 2010, which I believe uses the Microsoft Internet controls reference.
Please see the following screenshot for more information. Note the code changes the zoom of the Web Browser so that an image zooms to fit.
http://screencast.com/t/WsqWTlZRnh
The documentation I found referring to the object used is at the following location:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa752127(v=vs.85).aspx
Good look…
Due to a new web site and CMS system, I'm dealing with multiple users making content changes to our site. Many of them are trying to copy and paste content from MS Word and other Office products which, as any web developer knows, is a nightmare.
What I'm looking for is a simple offline Word Processor or WYSIWYG editor that I can ask people to use instead of Word in cases where they aren't going to be composing their changes directly on our site.
Basic requirements:
It should be simple to use. I do not need any advanced features. Basically just a word processor that generates valid HTML.
Freeware or open source would be nice
It would be a bonus if it also had a "paste-from-Word" feature
I am not looking for a MS Office replacement as that will never get approved. I need a supplemental editor for our web content editors.
Our environment is mostly Windows Vista/7, though we do have a small base of Mac users as well.
Based on my searches, the most frequent answer I see is NVU, but quite honestly that is too complex for my users since I don't need a whole site editor, file manager, or web publishing software - just the ability to create/edit simple HTML documents.
Yes, I know this technically isn't a programming question, but I'm sure it is relevant to a lot of programmers and web developers.
You can open a WYSIWYG from a local html file. If you don't want to do this through the normal browser, you can do it through an embedded web browser in your application. Check Qt, its a framework that can show web pages (local ones too) using WebKit.
Is it possible to serve a read-only pdf file to multiple computers in a local area network. say for example a library has one copy of an e-book. the library has multiple computers and the ebook is stored in a server. students are then to read the ebook simultaneously at the client units.
Ff it is, what solutions are available programming-wise (or is there a software available for this?). I would want to write a program that does exactly this, and maybe not just for pdf files.
IIUC, you are going down the Digital Rights Management path. A non-trivial task in itself. Adobe's PDF format supports various means of securing a file and they have LiveCycle Rights Management specifically for this. Adobe Digital Editions is something you will want to check out:
What DRM formats are supported?
Most libraries and bookstores that sell or loan PDF eBooks use Adobe’s
Content Server to protect their books.
This is the DRM format that was
supported by Acrobat and Reader 6 and
7. Digital Editions also supports books from such bookstores and
libraries, as well as migrating legacy
books that were downloaded with
Acrobat/Reader 6 & 7
Note that most online libraries already employ some sort of DRM and it is up to you to choose one. There are various types of DRM and you will have to read up on those and choose one.
Microsoft Reader also supports DRM -- something you may want to check out (if you are going to work with more than PDF files).
However, DRM is a contentious issue and enough controversy has already been created around DRMs -- so be sure if you want to go down this path.
I would strongly recommend you go through the Wikipedia article on DRM to get a fair idea of what you are up against.
I have a huge MS Access document with built-in VBA codebase. Is it possible to track the file (as I am developing it) with a (mercurial) version control system? Can I extract code and track that? Or is it just the-binary-file-path? Thanks.
It's possible with MS Access to export most of the code through scripts. I posted some here a while ago:
How do you use version control with Access development?
It's possible to version-control binary files, but it would be a little cleaner (IMO) to have the code separate. If it works for you though, then by all means do what you do.
There is a nice tool here https://github.com/hilkoc/vbaDeveloper .
It allows you to easily export and import all your vba code and can do this automatically as soon as you click 'save'.
The export files are all plain text which you can then put in version control in the usual way.
Access all the way up to 2010 has supported source code control, and that includes support for team foundation server. The fact that you place all files in ONE zip file, one folder on a hard drive, or one container called an accDB is a MOOT point. As long as EACH individual object can be viewed as a SEPARATE object, then why do you care if one is using a zip file, or an accDB file? This is a “logical” view vs a physical view issue.
The simple matter is EACH OBJECT IN ACCESS CAN BE EXPORTED AS A TEXT OBJECT. Thus Access has supported source control integrate using this ability with the standard Microsoft SCC interface since Access 97 (that is 17+ years!!).
When you use SCC such as Visual Source safe or Team Foundation server then the BUILT IN UI in Access supports display the objects status in question. You have resolution down to the form, report, sql query and code module level. So multiple developers can all work on the application at the same time. They only need check out the forms, reports quires etc. they are working on. Each developer thus has their own local build.
If using Visual Source Safe, then you see this in the ribbon:
If you using team foundation server, then you see this:
And for objects checked out, you see this:
And when you open, or even right click on an object, you see these additional options:
Of course given that “few” use this feature or even know what it is (and the posts on SO confirm this lack of knowledge), then it is LITTLE surprise that the feature was dropped in Access 2013 after all these years!. However some 3rd party add-ins claim to restore this ability. So the ability to export objects in 2013 as individual text files STILL remains in place.