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  1. N.B. To use web components you need IE5+, Office 2000/XP (to develop) or XP Components for viewing. XP Components version 10 are available for download at Microsoft.com if you have clients without office 2000+.

    http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2002/owc10.aspx?HelpLCID=%HelpLang%1033

    As I pointed out the original example in this thread launches excel in-place and doesn't use Web Components as some have suggested. So I have dug out an example of how to do the same thing (or similar) using components. Using components has several advantages and disadvantages but there is one very nice feature... read on.

    Firstly: i'll reproduce the "Hello Excel" example using the excel web component. Use the following print statements in an agent and call the agent from the web. The agent name can be anything and does not require the .xls name as you are not trying to get a full blow Excel session running.

    Print {<object id=component1 classid=CLSID:0002E510-0000-0000-c000-000000000046 style="width:49%;height:350"></object>}

    Print {<script language=vbscript>} Print {dim osheet} Print {set osheet = component1.ActiveSheet} Print {osheet.range("A1:A1").Value = "Hello Excel Web Component"} Print {</script>}

    This launches the default component and sets the first cell value. The first line embeds the component (an activeX control) using its class ID. If the machine loading the page does not have the component registered (i.e. installed) the activeX control will not display. There are many many ways to configure the component once it has loaded e.g.

    Print {component1.TitleBar.Caption = "This is a CodeStore test"}

    check out the MSOffice VBA component documentation for a full method reference.

    So whats the advantage? Well you can format the page around the component for one and the component is light-weight but a major advantage is the DataType property of the sheet component. This property has a type of HTMLURL, sounds interesting, and in operation it is amazingly simple!!!

    Print {component1.HTMLURL = "url to data"}

    Heres the cruncher... Just set the URL to a Notes View and your view will appear in the component!!! The code is below.

    Print {osheet.cells.clear} Print {component1.DataType = "HTMLURL"} Print {component1.HTMLURL = "/my database/myview?OpenView"}

    However there are some caveats. The URL must be to the same sever that the component is loaded from, i.e. the same server as the database that is running your agent. And the view must have no formatting. The best way to do this is to create a view template for the view and have nothing in it but a $$ViewBody field.

    Doing this is similar to doing a "New Web Query" from within Excel.

    Well... there you go... simple... and the automation possibilities are huge. Mix this with the pivot table and chart components and the boss will be really happy.

    Make good use of it...!!

    Mike http://www.notestips.com

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