How can I create a link to export directly in Excel?

general discussion
1

Hello all,

I’m quite new to BO use but I want to learn :slight_smile:

My project is the following :
i would like to create a macro in VBA that enables to generate the BI Report and export the Bo in Excel in a given server
Let’s say :
BI Name is : “Test”
BI ID : “1234”
Server name : “Pool”
Variable used for the prompt is “Prompt”
Value of the prompt : City

The link I created is :
http://server/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?&sDocName=Test&iDocID=1234&lsMPrompt=City&sOutputFormat=E

The thing is that at the end it opens an html page.

How can I do to open directly the excel file or at list that the page proposes to save the BI in Excel autmatically ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Mlle Daria :slight_smile:

MlleDaria :fr: (BOB member since 2014-03-18)

2

Welcome to B:bob:B!

You may not need VBA for this. BusinessObjects already has that capability. You can create a report, and schedule it to run whenever you want, and send an Excel version to you via email.

MichaelWelter :vatican_city: (BOB member since 2002-08-08)

3

Hello MichaelWelter,

Thank you for your reply and thank you for welcoming me here :slight_smile:

About your suggestion, I already use it. The problem is that the trigger for that is the schedule (indeed you can save the excel file on server, etc.)

But my need is to be able to launch that export “On demand” via a VBA.
Furthermore, if a create a schedule, I will have 2 options:

  • Either keep every versions of the export
  • Or keep only the latest : but what happens if a user has added information to the previous export and that he wants to keep it ?

MlleDaria :fr: (BOB member since 2014-03-18)

4

You can schedule it through BusinessObjects, and have the report triggered based on a File Event. Then create a simple VBA script that creates the needed file to trigger the event. It can be an empty text file. It will simply trigger the event.

If the report is emailed to the user, they can keep and/or modify it all they want, with no need to delete until they are ready.

MichaelWelter :vatican_city: (BOB member since 2002-08-08)

5

Thank you so much for your suggestion.
I will try the first proposal and let you know the results :slight_smile:

By the way, I discovered another solution which is the use of sOutputformat=E in the URL to the BI, but it doesn’t work on WebI (found some info on the forum)

Thx again Michael.

Daria :slight_smile:

MlleDaria :fr: (BOB member since 2014-03-18)