SQLLink to XLS file Options

[Graham H]

Hi,

When exploring what SQLLink 4 could do, I noticed it offered various Data Source drivers including Excel. I've tried using this with a spreadsheet source but it does not seem to do anything.

Have I misunderstood what these driversd are for?

I appreciate I can also uswe the Data Pipe Client and DDE links to get at spreadsheet data but am curious as to what this Excel driver offers.

Regards,

Graham

[Scott McDowell]

Hi Graham,

SQLLink does not install any ODBC drivers. The drivers you're looking at were either included with Windows or were installed by a third-party.

SQLLink 4 has the option to connect to either Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle natively, or you can use ODBC drivers to connect to any other database/database-like program that can offer data in plain text format.

We have used SQLLink to connect to Excel workbooks and it "works", provided you have configured the Excel ODBC driver correctly. I can say from experience that the Excel driver's GUI design could be improved. Beyond configuring the driver, there are the larger questions that need to be answered: Is Excel the right solution for what I'm trying to do? Am I going to run into issues regarding access to the Excel workbook (if the workbook is open in Excel, the ODBC driver can't read the file)?

In my opinion, if you want to copy data from Excel irregularly, it's far easier to simply copy and paste the data (either into DataPipe Client or the Moxie Studio's Data Manager module). However, if you want to copy data from Excel regularly and maintain a constant connection, I think you're better off with a proper database because Excel is terrible at acting like a database. (Microsoft offers other DB products like MS SQL Server or even MS Access for a reason.) As I said, this is my own opinion, so please take it for what it's worth.

[Graham H]

Thanks Scott,

I appreciate your advice. I'll not try pushing SQLLink for Excel :-)
Regards,

Graham

[leightonb]

Graham,

I don't know if you are using Moxie, but I have got excel data coming in to the Datapipe using scripts - admittedly the file has to be closed, and saved as an csv for my script to work, but it covers what I need if you want it?

Leighton

[Scott McDowell]

Thanks, Leighton. That's a great suggestion! Please feel free to post your script code in the Moxie Scripts forum, if you feel like sharing.

Graham, if you find that you really don't have much of a choice when it comes to how to retreive your data, Excel to SQLLink 4 is still a viable option. We have a few customers doing this and they just live with the limitations of the Excel ODBC interface. If you've got the option to go with a database, I'd go that route. However, we don't always have the luxury of options! Please let me know if you'd like some help with the ODBC driver config.