[OpenAFS] Volunteer Required: Microsoft Office Scripting
David Steele
dsteele@sinenomine.net
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:00:29 -0300
For now I will leave out Access since the locking will not be quite
right. I'll work on this tomorrow and I should have it done by Friday
evening at the latest.
-Dave
Jeffrey Altman wrote:
> David Steele wrote:
>
>> Jeffrey,
>>
>> Evan Macbeth asked me if I'd take a look at this and I told him I
>> would. I do need a few more details, however, before I can start.
>>
>> 1) Do you need the script to do Excel, Word, and Powerpoint or is just
>> one sufficient?
>>
>
> Start with one but each of the applications does use the file system
> APIs slightly differently. So eventually I would like to script all three.
>
>
>> 2) AFAIK, only Access allows concurrent access to files. Would you like
>> the script to include Access?
>>
>
> I believe that Word at the very least will allow one user to access the
> file in a read-only manner while waiting for the editing user to close
> the file.
>
>
>> 3) I assume you want the script to open a file, fiddle around with it
>> for a few minutes and then close it so that the instances on other
>> machines can get to it? I'm sure that I can code the script to error
>> gracefully when the file is locked and have it go on to something else.
>>
>
> In the case of Word, the script could open a source file. Copy the
> contents. Create a new file. Insert the text. Save the file. Move
> blocks of text around. Save the file again. Close the file. Open the
> file. Move blocks of text once again. Close the file. Delete the file.
>
> For Excel, populating a spreadsheet with data imported from a CSV file
> would work. Save the file. Create a graph. Save the file. Add
> additional worksheets. Repeat the import. Save the file. Close the
> file. Open the file. Mess around a bit more. Save the file. Close
> the file. Delete the file.
>
> For powerpoint. Create a presentation. Import generate a number of
> slides. Save the file. Add more slides. Save the file. Insert some
> pictures from source JPGs. Save the file. Close the file. Open the
> file. Play the slide show. Close the file. Delete the file.
>
> If you want to script operations in Access as well, that would certainly
> be useful.
>
> Note that given the current implementation of locking. I don't expect
> multiple machines to be able to access the same files at the same time.
> The locking should prevent it. However, if you are on the same
> terminal server machine, then you should be able to actively share the
> same files within AFS.
>
>
>
>> 4) Is Office 2003 OK, or would you need Office 2000? I'm not sure that
>> I have access to 2000 at the moment.
>>
>
> Office 2003 is just fine. I don't think we need to use Office 2000.
>
>
>> Any additional details you can give me would be helpful. I'd hate to
>> develop something and then find out that it did not meet your needs.
>>
>
> Primarily I want the scripts to show that Microsoft Office applications
> can read/write/create/delete files in AFS without data corruption. If
> you can exercise the code enough to demonstrate that things are good.
>
> The scripts should be able to be run a specified number of times with
> unique file names. I want to be able to run the scripts overnight.
>
> Jeffrey Altman
>