Question

Our PowerBuilder application generates a report by printing a DataWindow as PDF file. Now we would like to modify the PB such that an Excel is generated instead of PDF.

In my PB code I tried using the following function:

public function integer save_dw_to_file (datawindow adw_datawindow, string as_filename, string as_folder);
  string ls_tmp_file_xls
  ls_tmp_file_xls = as_filename+'_temp.xls'
  adw_datawindow.saveas(ls_tmp_file_xls,Excel!,true)
  return 1
end function

Note: adw_datawindow is the DataWindow that I want to print; as_filename is the output filename.
However, this seems not work because I got an error when I open the file.

Do you know how to do this? Our environment:

PB Version: PB 12 Classic; Excel Version: MS Excel 2007

Answer 1

Your code should work; you should check the error code because it will have meaningful info.

It could be a permissions (file) issue, file contention issue, bad folder (invalid characters), etc., existing file that is locked. Wouldn’t hurt to see if the file/folder exists first. You can check for the file using FileExists(as_filename) or you can check a folder by DirectoryExists(as_directory).

You could try Excel8! for Excel version 8 or higher but I think your Excel! should work just fine.

// Add saveastype as parameter to function
public function integer save_dw_to_file (datawindow adw_datawindow, &
                                         string as_filename, &
                                         string as_folder, &
                                         SaveAsType sat_SaveType)

int li_rc
string ls_tmp_file
ls_tmp_file = as_filename

// add file extension based on saveastype
choose case sat_SaveType
case Excel!, Excel5!, Excel8!
   ls_tmp_file += '_temp.xls'
case PDF!
   ls_tmp_file += '_temp.pdf'
end choose

if FileExists ( ls_tmp_file ) Then  
   if MessageBox('File already exists','Would you like to replace: ' + &
       ls_tmp_file + '?', Question!, YesNo!, 2) = 2 then
      return -1
   end if
end if 

// save type based on parameter to function
li_rc = adw_datawindow.saveas(ls_tmp_file, sat_SaveType, true)
if li_rc = -1 then
    MessageBox('Error saving file','Unable to save file: ' + ls_tmp_file)
end if

return li_rc