Personal Data Providers (Excel)

system · October 11, 2002, 5:50pm

Hi all–

We have our first users tiptoeing in ZABOland, and a couple love using Excel (Personal Data Providers) in their reports. I know I read about this (and did just check the Knowledge Base), but can’t tell from what I’ve read what the best solution is…

A user on a machine with ZABO newly installed (possibly newly reformatting PC overall, not sure) doesn’t even see the option to use a personal data provider. When she goes to open an old report (from her previous pc and job) that joined to Excel and refresh it, she gets all sorts of CDAO scode etc errors. The things I’ve read point to things not being installed on the MS Office end, or to installing a .dll. If it’s just a missing Office piece that can be easily added, that would be best – but what is it really?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Amy

Amy Miller (BOB member since 2002-06-07)

system · October 11, 2002, 6:27pm

First place to check … is the option enabled or disabled in Supervisor?

Chris Pohl (BOB member since 2002-06-18)

system · October 11, 2002, 6:28pm

Amy:

I think that if you install the Microsoft DAO from the BusObj cd, you should be fine. The issue is that BusObj doesn’t talk to the newer versions, so if you are running Office 2000 or Windows 2000 - a fresh install rather than an upgrade - then the older versions aren’t around.

Dave

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · October 11, 2002, 7:27pm

So much for the Zero Admin idea, then? Would it have been ok if the install had been from the CD in the first place? Or is something that isn’t done by the default install?

(And, as to the previous question - it is enabled in Supervisor – no changes there.)

Thanks.

Amy Miller (BOB member since 2002-06-07)

system · October 11, 2002, 8:38pm

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that BusObj uses DAO 3.5/MDAC 2.1? / 2.2?, which came with Office 97 and older versions of Windows. So if they have Win2K/XP and/or Office2K/XP, they have DAO 4.x/MDAC2.5 or something like that.

And the installer for full-client took care of it.

So maybe we (as administrators) need to build a web site where our ZABO users can download/install DAO 3.5/MDAC 2.1/2.2 (whichever it is). Then if a user needs Personal Data Provider(s) and they do not yet have DAO 3.5, they download and run the installer for that. Once only, hopefully.

Or, BusObj could improve the ZABO installer to download/install DAO3.5 if the user doesn’t already have it? (Add to wish list…)

Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

system · October 11, 2002, 8:58pm

Well, it’s a toss-up as to whose fault it is.

BusObj doesn’t work with the newest drivers. But if you had upgraded from an older operating system or older version of MS Office, you would have been fine.

Remember what ZABO is supposed to be… it’s zero admin for everything based on the server. Personal data files are - by definition - not on the server. In other words, you’re back to maintaining drivers on the client workstation.

Yes, if you had installed from the CD, you would have been fine. If you install from the CD, then de-install and run ZABO, you’re fine that way too. But you’re right; you’ve lost the “Z”.

Dave

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · October 11, 2002, 10:54pm

I found a link OpenSoftwares Tools that talks about (among other things) Installing MDAC and Jet/DAO 3.5 components.

It then points to a Microsoft link for MDAC 2.1 or higher (I found 2.1 SP2 there – you do not want MDAC 2.6 – that’s the wrong version to use with BusObj and Personal Data Providers). MDAC 2.6 with its version of DAO (I think DAO 4.x) register separately, and appear to be able to coexist in the registry.

It further says that Jet 3.5/DAO 3.5 is comprised of the following core files, which must be installed (registered) to function.
In particular, the article from OpenSoftwares Tools states:
CAUTION! Windows 2000/Millenium (and I’d venture to guess XP) include MDAC 2.5 and jet 4.0/DAO 3.6 components, but they don’t provide DAO3.5. (Then they give other information that may be particular to their product.)

So – I’ve downloaded the DAO3.5 MDAC.2.1 SP2 installer (mdac_typ.exe) from the Microsoft site to our file server, to potentially use for Win2K/XP, Office2K/XP machines that might need DAO 3.5 for Personal Data Providers – perhaps Amy can try this and see if it helps her user out?

Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

system · October 12, 2002, 3:08am

That’s fine, except that it’s already on the BusObj cdrom. There is a “Microsoft” folder on the cd. It may not be the same service pack, but it’s there…

Dave

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · October 12, 2002, 8:57pm

Is it something one can install on its own, or does it have to be done via the installer? I’m thinking, along Anita’s lines, that maybe we could lift the files and put them on our (secure) ftp site…

Thanks!

Amy Miller (BOB member since 2002-06-07)

system · October 13, 2002, 12:27am

It has its own installer. It should be installed first, I think, then ZABO will recognize it when it is installed later.

Dave

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · October 14, 2002, 12:15pm

well you can put them off by saying it’s just a windows thing

seriously - I have had this on-going problem the last 2 years and can find no explanation for it - identical PCs that behave differently
The same applies to export to excel

anyone with a solution?
and please don’t tell me it’s in the .dll or dao or mdac or odbc driver or whatever - I’ve been thru all that

scott copeland (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

system · October 16, 2002, 4:29pm

Hey all–

Just an update on my experiences with this, which still aren’t really resolved…

Went to the CD, found the microsoft folder. Of course, the directory mentioned in the Knowledge Base doesn’t exist on the 5.1.4 CD, but I figured out which one it was (and later had this confirmed by tech support). Tried running the mdac_type.exe, and got an error that it was incompatible with the OS version. Just for the heck of it, went to the Microsoft site and downloaded the similar version from there, with the same problem. So, so much for that solution!

Decided to give this user a break, and ended up deinstalling the ZABO-ly installed files, and reinstalled from the CD. Left the ActiveX control, so it still knew to go through the webserver. Now the user can use personal data files fine, but I’ve probably screwed up the ability for her to be upgraded via the web.

So, not an ideal or desired solution, but it works. Have bounced this back to tech support in hopes (ha!) of a real solution.

Thanks!
–a.

Amy Miller (BOB member since 2002-06-07)

system · October 17, 2002, 7:42am

I had a similar problem. What I had to do was register a different DLL. I’ll look around and let you know which one. I got the solution out of the KB.

Steve Krandel (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

system · October 28, 2002, 4:34pm

ZABO does only install the BusinessObjects software, but the VBAjet engine 3.5 is not installed automatically. In order to install this, do the following: On your setup CD there is an executable called dataacc.exe It can be found (till version 5.1.3) in the following folder: \Vol1\microsoft\DATAACC\DATAACC.EXE

It copies the dao350.dll file to your …\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO\ directory and a bunch of dll files to your …windows\system directory (for win95/98 users) or WINNT\system32 (NT,W2000 users) and registers these dll files. After this, users should be able to access personal data files or export to local file format.

If this executable doesn’t work, then copy manually the required dll files to the user’s pc with ZABO and register the dll files manually. Time consuming but it has always been a good 2nd solution for me…

Good luck.

cyrielke (BOB member since 2002-09-10)

system · October 28, 2002, 4:38pm

Sorry,

I only read the initial email and after submitting, I noticed a bunch of postreplies…

cyrielke (BOB member since 2002-09-10)

system · October 28, 2002, 7:33pm

Just curious … who were you before 1971?

MikeMcErlain (BOB member since 2002-06-08)

system · April 11, 2003, 8:14pm

Update and Closure:

Copy the following three DLL files to C:\WINNT\system32 and register them:

“Msexcl35.dLL” (provided on BO CD via DataAcc.EXE Data Access Pack)
“MSJET35.dLL” & “DAO350.dLL”

Then register these three DLL files:
Go to Windows Start button, run

regsvr32 "C:\WINNT\System32\Msexcl35.dll"
regsvr32 "C:\WINNT\System32\MSJET35.dll"
regsvr32 "C:\WINNT\System32\DAO350.dll"

Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

system · June 18, 2003, 12:55am

Thanks Andreas … Got the option to show up. Does it matter what dll versions they are? I’ve passed this level and on to the “vbajet32.dll” issue. It keeps failing to initialize. I’ve looked up the solutions posted on the MSDN site and tried those but none work. Was wondering if I’m missing something simple here.

bishopxl21 (BOB member since 2003-05-01)

system · April 20, 2006, 7:33pm

Back to this 4 years later. I have a user that is enabled in Supervisor to use personal data files, but cannot. I know it is not a DLL problem because if I log in on my laptop as me I can used Personal Data files, but if I log in as her I can not. Any ideas anyone?

dmnorman (BOB member since 2005-03-03)

system · November 20, 2006, 7:26pm

Bump for same issue… as of 2 weeks ago I had this option in my program and now it is has disappeared!

happywakko (BOB member since 2006-10-30)