RE: data entry from excel workbook -- RPG400-L

Mike,
All true.
Needless to say, I neglected mention of political/religious factors -
of which I guess you are also aware.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Cunningham
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 8:14 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: RE: data entry from excel workbook

Would it be a better alternative to give them a RPG app that does everything their spreadsheet does and have them stop using the spreadsheet?

We have applications that deal with uploaded spreadsheets and the issue we continually hit is the user changing the spreadsheet format, add columns, move columns, rename columns and then a person name is there the city should be and their address is where they country should be.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gary Thompson
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 9:17 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: data entry from excel workbook

Strange this project should come up this week!

This week it became apparent we need to automate data entry to maintain detail article dimensions and attributes to support a robotic picking system we are starting to commission.

RPGLE, embedded SQL and basic API programming is our sweet spot. We do have one person skilled in Excel macros and automation with VBA.

Our warehouse team is very attached to an Excel workbook and we need to eliminate delays that occur in passing the workbook to a data entry person (not always available to meet warehouse schedules), provide data edits and error reporting, eliminate typing errors and make the process much faster.

My question is what tool(s) do we use to consume the Excel workbook ?

We have been using for some time (and great effect) variations on Scott Klement's DELTREE to process files on the IFS, and have seen discussion of ways to read Excel files (don't see a need to write/update but have not absolutely ruled this out).
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