Question

As part of an Excel based scheduler that I have created, I am using the ‘Application.Ontime’ function in the following manner to execute macros at specified times

Sub Load
    //snipped for brevity

    Dim startName As String
    startName = "'StartSub""" & filePath & """, """ & fileName & """, """ & macroName & """'"

    Application.OnTime y, startName

End Sub

Sub StartSub(filePath As String, fileName As String, macroName As String)
    Dim wb As String
    wb = "'" & filePath & "'!" & macroName
    Application.Run wb
    Application.Workbooks(fileName).Close Savechanges:=True
End Sub

Testing and simple POC seems to have worked really well. The issue I am facing is that one of the spreadsheets is password protected. The problem is that password entry dialogue prevents the macro from executing which I guess is expected. There is no need for write access to the password protected workbook since the output and results are exported to several reports.

My question is how to overcome this and run macros from a password protected workbook using Application.Run?

Answer 1

Since the workbook is password protected, a password always is supplied when openign the file. In order to overcome this, I needed to store the passwords in my workbook. So the issue actually boiled down to opening a file with the correct password.

Sub StartSub(filePath As String, fileName As String, macroName As String)
    Dim wb As String
    wb = "'" & filePath & "'!" & macroName
    Dim scheduledWb As Workbook

    Dim pwd As String
    Dim saveChange As Boolean
    pwd = GetPassword(fileName) ' method that extracts correct password from somewhere
    If Len(pwd) > 0 Then
        Set scheduledWb = Workbooks.Open(fileName:=filePath, ReadOnly:=True, Password:=pwd)
        saveChange = False
    Else
        Set scheduledWb = Workbooks.Open(fileName:=filePath)
        saveChange = True
    End If

    Application.Run "'" & fileName & "'!" & macroName
    Application.Workbooks(fileName).Close Savechanges:=saveChange
End Sub