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Triggering processes from an Excel File

  • 25 October 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 19 views
M

Here is an interesting idea to consider for triggering processes. As some customers are doing away with network drives because of Work From Home policies, the idea was to trigger a process directly from a button in Excel.

 

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When the button is clicked, the active Excel workbook is saved and closed. The file is then converted into a base64 string and a task is created via the API in the Excel Addin. The Button name is hardcoded but parameters for the Custom wizard ID, Server API URL, credentials, etc can be configured in a config file as shown below.

Multiple custom wizard IDs can be defined in the config file and tied to the respective buttons in the Excel Addin.

 

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Once the robot picks up the process, a .Net Plugin is used to convert the base64 String back into the file. The robot now has a local copy of the Excel file, with which it can start processing.

 

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Here is a brief description of the process shown in the attached demo video.

 

The business user is working in Singapore but needs to set up a meeting with colleagues across different time zones. The business user sets up an excel file with a list of timings from his/her time zone. The business user enters the desired time zones into the adjacent headers, based on the UTC time. When the process runs and the robot has re-generated the excel file, it takes in the list of timings, loops through the different headers, converts the time, and writes the result into the Excel File.

 

Some possible enhancements/points to consider:

  1. Housekeeping of the Excel file after the process has been completed.
  2. Possible integration with a credential management system to get the login account for the Kryon Studio/Robot.
  3. This method can only work to trigger Unattended robots.

 

 

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Best answer by Mark_Lim 29 August 2022, 15:02

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4 replies

A

Very good!

D

Hey

looks very cool

would like to try

The mechanism for creating a button in Excel is not clear and how to connect it with what in order for it to work with the Cryon API + conversion plugin

 

Will you develop this idea and wait for a detailed article in the future? or is it a seed that this can be done

 

@Mark Lim​ 

M

@Dmitry Dmitry​ 

It is more of a seed that this can be done if the use case/the environment permits.

 

You may refer to this website for a guide on what needs to be done: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/vsto/walkthrough-adding-controls-to-a-worksheet-at-run-time-in-vsto-add-in-project?view=vs-2022

 

The idea is as follows:

  1. Save and close the workbook using the Excel Interopt Library
  2. Convert the Excel Workbook into a base64 String using the Binary Reader.
  3. Pass the Base64 string to the robot via the Kryon API. I used the HTTP Web Request library for the API call.
  4. Create a .NET plugin to convert the Base64 string back to an Excel File
  5. Upon starting the wizard, the plugin converts the Base64 string back to an Excel file, in a folder specified by the user/developer.
  6. The robot can then proceed to work with/work on data from the Excel File, i.e Copy from Excel, perform the business logic etc.
  7. Once done, the Excel file can be sent back to the user via email or dropped into some shared folder.
D

@Mark Lim​ 

thanks for the answer, I will try

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