Is program integration possible?

[heinz1218]

I've got a bunch of entries in excel, and i need to take the name of the company and search for it in this program we have, and then export a company report (a function of this program built in). I'm wondering if there's any way to develop and application to do this for me. Basically it would involve taking a name from excel (or from a text file if that would be easier) and pasting it in the program, searching for it, and then running the export. What all would this involve (if it's possible), and what would it need?

Thanks guys.

[redhead]

If this is entirely inside your excel document, then you can make a simple macro within your document to handle all that...
The other way around, the program in question would have to provide an API which gives access to the search and export options within the program, then you could create a program which would interact that way..
But it is highly unlikely that closed source programs provides such APIs.

Either way this thread is moved to a more appropriate forum.

[heinz1218]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm familiar with macros, I'm talking about functionality inside and outside of excel. So what I'm hearing is that I need an API, which, like you said, is highly unlikely that I'll be able to attain.

In general, how hard is it to integrate excel with an outside program? For example, another problem I have is that I have to take a list of say 100 companies and search for them on a website, say this one:

DSBS

Say I have a list of companies in excel in column A, and I want a script to take the name from each column, go to this website and put the name of the company in the "company name or trade name" text box at the bottom of the form, set the option to comma delimited, submit the form, and then copy the comma delimited data into a text file for future import. Is this possible/what language(s) would I need to use/is there a resource online/book form out there that anyone knows about?

[redhead]

That is virtualy impossible, it is fetching the info, by calling http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/dsp_firmlis...estTimeout=180 However, the form method is as POST, which means you can't just send the required fields as a simple GET request.
So you'd have to enter the company name into the search form pressent, and actively press submit..
Else you could make a pseudo submit form, which provides all the needed fields, named in the same way as in the provided search form, and use the same action script...
Now I don't know how well web-interaction is provided through the macro programming provided in excel, but if it was possible, then this would be how I would do it..

Else I don't see any other way, than manualy typing it in, and search for it the hard way.

[technobard]

What you need is an API for reading Excel spreadsheets that can be incorporated into an application that can handle the rest of your requirements. Check out:
1) http://jakarta.apache.org/poi/
2) http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2...poi_excel.html

Jakarta POI is a Java API for accessing Excel spreadsheets.

[kevin8084]

Look into the concept of Dynamic Data Exchange. This might be what you're looking for.