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VBA-tools / VBA-Web

VBA-Web: Connect VBA, Excel, Access, and Office for Windows and Mac to web services and the web
http://vba-tools.github.io/VBA-Web/
MIT License
2.02k stars 494 forks source link

Excel Add-In #200

Open Sophist-UK opened 8 years ago

Sophist-UK commented 8 years ago

Would it be a good idea to package this up as an Excel Add-In so that you can load it once it Excel and then use it in multiple Excel sheets (rather than having to load the modules into every Excel Worksheet you want to use them in)?

Note 1: I am thinking of this as an additional way of using VBA-Web rather than as a replacement.

Note 2: An additional benefit is that upgrading your projects from one release of VBA-Web to a newer release should be as simple as replacing the add-in and testing. (I have not had to do such an upgrade myself, but this has to be easier than replacing various modules in your VBA project.)

timhall commented 8 years ago

I feel pretty strongly that it shouldn't be able to be run from an add-in; it was originally created to be completely portable and not tied to an add-in. Even if the add-in is not the default, I think it could quickly start to diverge between the portable version and the add-in and I've been trying to maintain as much compatibility as I can. With that said, I'm not too familiar with what you're suggesting would even look like, so I may be overreacting and if you have a reference for how it would work, I'm happy to look at it.

For 2. I think the installer approaches this currently: download the latest version and select your workbook from the installer and it will update it. With that said, I think an installer add-in would be great that could download the latest release and install/update the current workbook with the click of a button (been a dream of mine, just haven't had time to work on it).

Sophist-UK commented 8 years ago

I am sorry - but I don't understand your objection to an add-in (though we would need two add-ins I guess - one for Windows and one for Mac).

AFAIK (though I haven't tried it myself), all you need to do to create the add-in is to open the default workbook that already exists in Excel and save as an Excel Add-in. Job done!! User then adds the add-in and the VBA-Web functionality is then available in every worksheet.

I guess it is possible that you might need to write a little extra management code - but I suspect it will work out of the box without any.

An updater would be great - if you could start by putting the current version in a constant in WebHelpers that would be a boon. Writing a Helper routine to check for updates should be relatively simple - if I ever get the time I will do it for you.