Hi Richard, Sorry for not replying earlier, I've had other duties to take over. Can you tell me from where you took the excerpts of documentation you sent me in your last e-mail ? Because they are consistent with the behaviour I observe, but not with the documentation on MSDN, so apparently your documentation is more reliable. Thanks, Samuel > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Quadling [mailto:rquadling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 5:28 PM > To: Faubry, Samuel > Cc: php-windows@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: Excel OLE Automation using COM: file > access problem > > 2009/5/19 Faubry, Samuel <Samuel.Faubry@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > >> From: Richard Quadling > >> 2009/5/18 Faubry, Samuel <Samuel.Faubry@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > >> > Hi, > >> > > >> > I am interfacing PHP and Excel to build a web-based > >> reporting tool. I am running IIS6.0 with PHP 5.2.5 on > Windows Server > >> 2003, with Office 2003 installed. > >> > > >> > For testing purpose, I wrote a script that just connects to > >> Excel, opens a workbook, saves it under another name and > closes Excel: > >> > > >> > $if_path = 'C:\if_test.xls'; > >> > $of_path = 'C:\of_test.xls'; > >> > > >> > echo date('H:i:s') . " Launch Excel application \n"; $excelApp = > >> > new COM("Excel.Application") or die("Cannot > >> create an Excel object"); > >> > echo date('H:i:s') . " Loaded Excel, version > >> {$excelApp->Version}\n"; > >> > > >> > echo date('H:i:s') . " Open workbook at path $if_path\n"; > >> > $excelApp->Workbooks->Open($if_path, 2); > >> > > >> > echo date('H:i:s') . " Save changes to $of_path\n"; > >> > $excelApp->Workbooks[1]->SaveAs($of_path); > >> > > >> > echo date('H:i:s') . " Close Excel\n"; $excelApp->Quit(); > >> > > >> > When I open the page in Internet Explorer, if I put > >> "http://localhost/test.php";, everything works fine, but if I put > >> "http://my_server_name.domain.int/test.php";, the script is blocked > >> when trying to open the file, which means I can't access > the script > >> elsewhere than on the server. > >> > > >> > By "blocked", I mean no error is shown, but it doesn't > >> react, and the excel.exe task keeps running and keeps the > file locked. > >> > > >> > My guess is that Excel is run with different permissions in > >> the second case, so it cannot access the file, but it might be > >> completely something else... > >> > > >> > Does someone have any experience in that matter ? > >> > > >> > Thank you very much ! > >> > > >> > > >> > >> If it is permissions, TEMPORARILY, allow IIS to interact with the > >> desktop. Hopefully you can RDP to the server as the > console and see > >> what error message pops up (if any). > >> > >> As PHP and excel run on the server, you will need to see > the server > >> for any errors that can be displayed in this regard. > >> > >> I don't think you'll be able to do this on server 2008 as the > >> "console" is no longer displayed (session 0 is purely for internal > >> use only - services and the like - and no display is allowed). > >> > >> > >> -- > >> ----- > >> Richard Quadling > >> Zend Certified Engineer : > >> http://zend.com/zce.php?c=ZEND002498&r=213474731 > >> "Standing on the shoulders of some very clever giants!" > >> > > > > Hi, thanks for your reply, Richard. > > > > I RDP'd to the server console, but no error pops up. I > allowed IIS to > > interact with the desktop, but I didn't change anything. > > > > I might have found the problem: the file I am trying to open has > > external links. With a "normal" file it works fine whatever > way I run > > the script. > > > > That's why I used the second argument (UpdateLinks) in the > Open call > > documented here (2 means "Never update links for this workbook on > > opening"): > > > http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel > > .w > > orkbooks.open(office.11).aspx > > > > Apparently, the argument I passed (2 of PHP type integer) > is invalid. > > Let me explain why I think so: > > In the following, I am running everything from > > http://localhost/test.php, which allows user interaction. > > If I put $excelApp->Visible = 0 and use 2 as the > UpdateLinks argument > > to Open, everything runs fine without any interaction with the user. > > If I put $excelApp->Visible = 1 and use 2 as the > UpdateLinks argument > > to Open, Excel shows up and tells me the links could not be > updated, > > which means it tried to update it, which is NOT the > expected behaviour! > > The values 1, 2 and 3 all give the same result, which is > contradictory > > with the documentation (1 is "ask", 2 is "do not update" > and 3 is "do > > update"). > > If I put 0, Excel shows up and closes without any > interaction, but 0 > > is not an authorised value according to the documentation. > > Any other value crashes the script. > > If I don't specify this argument, Excel shows up and asks > me if I want > > to update, which is the expected behaviour. > > > > According to the documentation, this UpdateLinks argument is an > > Object, maybe that's where the problem lies? If so, how can > I create > > the object to be passed as an argument to Open? > > > > By the way, just out of curiosity, I tried to use the value > 0 and run > > the script from a client computer, but it is still blocked > in the way > > described above. > > > > Thanks for your help ! > > > > A couple of things (taken as snippets from the online help > and looking through the type library) ... > > AskToUpdateLinks Property > See AlsoApplies ToExampleSpecificsTrue if Microsoft Excel > asks the user to update links when opening files with links. > False if links are automatically updated with no dialog box. > Read/write Boolean. > > Example > This example sets Microsoft Excel to ask the user to update > links whenever a file that contains links is opened. > > Application.AskToUpdateLinks = True > > > > Do you have any macros as part of the file you open? If they > present dialogs, maybe they need to be suppressed also? > > Application.DisplayAlerts = False > Workbooks("BOOK1.XLS").Close > Application.DisplayAlerts = True > > > > Application.Workbooks.Open > > UpdateLinks Optional Variant. Specifies the way links in the file > are updated. If this argument is omitted, the user is > prompted to specify how links will be updated. Otherwise, > this argument is one of the values listed in the following table. > > Value Meaning > 0 Doesn't update any references > 1 Updates external references but not remote references > 2 Updates remote references but not external references > 3 Updates both remote and external references > > > Hmm.. > > Is it possible for you to run the PHP script from the command > line on the server using the same credentials used by IIS (or > the app pool used). I'm still not 100% uptodate with IIS+PHP > security using FastCGI. If you can get the script running, > make sure you turn on visibility within/for Excel so you can > see what is happening. > > -- > ----- > Richard Quadling > Zend Certified Engineer : > http://zend.com/zce.php?c=ZEND002498&r=213474731 > "Standing on the shoulders of some very clever giants!" > -- PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
