From: Don P. Nagai Just wondering what methods would be suggested for populating Excel templates (invoices, work orders, etc.) with data from UniVerse. We've run into problems with the newer HP printers no longer supporting PCL commands and are looking for alternative forms printing options. ====
Don - For your printing needs, PrintWizard can do PCL translations, overlays, and other functions which should help you to get more out of your printers, old and new: removethisNebula-RnD.com/products (Please 'removethis' text from links to our site.) For Excel, if you have existing spreadsheets, I'd opt for a custom add-in that will reach into U2, execute programs, and pull out whatever data you want. More on this below. I believe data can be pulled into existing documents with AccuTerm and formulas - read "fast and free solution". Custom code that uses a Web Service or other communications mechanism can extract data from U2. UO.NET is suitable for this - again read "fast and free solution". There are demos on the 'net for having Excel call out with a web service, and on our website (see the Gallery from the link below) you can see how to create a web service to connect into U2 with mv.NET. Just put the pieces together... To create new Excel documents, please have a look at a new product called NebulaXLite. XLite is a simple product I wrote to combat the typical scenario where I.T. people respond to inquiries for Excel with a CSV file. XLite allows you to create real Excel spreadsheets from BASIC, on any OS, without Excel anywhere in the process. Among other enhancements, an upcoming version of XLite will include the ability to use a templates to create new documents, but not to import data into existing documents. Pricing is not included on the website but I've been asked a few times why the price is so low - get it before someone convinces me to make a change. :) See FAQ for other details. For more sophisticated documents, Excel add-ins are complex to write but very powerful. We used to have a product for doing this but it was withdrawn, and custom development with Excel is now provided as a service, sometimes using components from NebulAnalysis. For an example of what's possible, see this page for the dearly departed NebulAnalysis. removethisNebula-RnD.com/products/analysis.htm An audio-video download of NebulAnalysis in action is available on request. Again, that's just to show what's possible for creating rich Excel documents from BASIC. Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done... HTH Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ removethisNebula-RnD.com ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
