Functioning spreadsheet on my web server

[legalpro]

I'm not very experienced with web design or excel but was wondering how difficult it would be to have a functioning spreadsheet on my website for clients.

Any instructions or advice on how to do this would be appreciated.
thanks.

 

[cheveley]

try http://www.spreadsheetconverter.com/

i cant vouch for the product but it looks impressive and should fulfill your requirements.

 

[cheveley]

or try the one mentioned on this site

http://www.kdcalc.com/

 

[tusharm]

I don't know anything about the suggestions you've received; if you try them out maybe you can post your experience with them.

You can also look at MS's Office Web Components, which are packaged with Office 2002 and 2003 (and maybe with 2000).

Using XL (or other legacy Office apps) on the server is a big no-no. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q257757

I'm not very experienced with web design or excel but was wondering how difficult it would be to have a functioning spreadsheet on my website for clients.

Any instructions or advice on how to do this would be appreciated.
thanks.

 

[cheveley]

would the products i mentioned side step the issue of using xl on the server tusharm?

 

[tusharm]

My understanding is that those products convert the XL workbook/sheet into a web-compatible "application." Think of it as a souped-up version of Colo's HTML Maker. Or, maybe, Google's online spreadsheet.

I imagine that for those who must make their XL apps "web friendly" these types of programs play an useful role.

At the same time, since they are converters, it leads to several obvious questions. And, I don't pretend to know the answers.

How well do they mimic the XL environment? For example, can they handle references to the contents of other worksheets? Workbooks? How well do they handle named ranges, named formulas?

Do they support MS-supplied addins such as the ATP or Solver? Do they handle UDFs? Other types of macros? Event procedures?

Also, several XL functions have long-standing "issues" with them, some by design, others by accident. How do these converter apps handle them? Do they mimic the problem?

MS has introduced differences in functionality with different versions of XL. For example, several stats functions were changed in 2002 and 2003. How do the converter programs handle this?

Again, this is not meant to criticize the converter type programs. The above is a non-exhaustive list of some of the concerns that I have had when evaluating such programs in the past and would have if I were to evaluate one in the future.

would the products i mentioned side step the issue of using xl on the server tusharm?

 

[cheveley]

thanks. i am at crossroads with regards to development. have spent 7 months building a web-based application using excel on the server as a solution. this is no solution as speed is slow and there is no scalability whatsover (everything has to be qued).

wonder whether to convert using above mentioned programs or convert our excel program into another language.

i will update on any success and failures!

 

[tusharm]

Office 2007 introduces something called the Excel Server. But, beyond knowing it's name, I don't know anything about it.

thanks. i am at crossroads with regards to development. have spent 7 months building a web-based application using excel on the server as a solution. this is no solution as speed is slow and there is no scalability whatsover (everything has to be qued).

wonder whether to convert using above mentioned programs or convert our excel program into another language.

i will update on any success and failures!