Walkthrough: Inserting Data into a Workbook on a Server

Article
02/04/2013

This walkthrough demonstrates how to insert data into a dataset that is cached in a Microsoft Office Excel workbook without starting Excel by using the ServerDocument class. This walkthrough provides step-by-step instructions for using the code example that is provided in How to: Insert Data into a Workbook on a Server.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

This walkthrough illustrates the following tasks:

Defining a dataset that contains data from the AdventureWorksLT database.
Creating instances of the dataset in an Excel workbook project and a console application project.
Creating a ListObject that is bound to the dataset in the workbook.
Adding the dataset in the workbook to the data cache.
Inserting data into the cached dataset by running code in the console application, without starting Excel.

Although this walkthrough assumes that you are running the code on your development computer, the code demonstrated by this walkthrough can be used on a server that does not have Excel installed.

Note

Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Working with Settings.

Prerequisites

You need the following components to complete this walkthrough:

An edition of Visual Studio 2010 that includes the Microsoft Office developer tools. For more information, see [Configuring a Computer to Develop Office Solutions](bb398242\(v=vs.100\).md).

Excel 2007 or Excel 2010.
Access to a running instance of Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Server Express that has the AdventureWorksLT sample database attached to it. You can download the AdventureWorksLT database from the CodePlex Web site. For more information about attaching a database, see the following topics:
- To attach a database by using SQL Server Management Studio or SQL Server Management Studio Express, see How to: Attach a Database (SQL Server Management Studio).
- To attach a database by using the command line, see How to: Attach a Database File to SQL Server Express.

Creating a Class Library Project That Defines a Dataset

To use the same dataset in an Excel workbook project and a console application, you must define the dataset in a separate assembly that is referenced by both of these projects. For this walkthrough, define the dataset in a class library project.

To create the class library project

Start Visual Studio.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project.
In the templates pane, expand Visual C# or Visual Basic, and then click Windows.
In the list of project templates, select Class Library.
In the Name box, type AdventureWorksDataSet.
Click Browse, navigate to your %UserProfile%\My Documents (for Windows XP and earlier) or %UserProfile%\Documents (for Windows Vista) folder, and then click Select Folder.
In the New Project dialog box, ensure that the Create directory for solution check box is not selected.
Click OK.

Visual Studio adds the AdventureWorksDataSet project to Solution Explorer and opens the Class1.cs or Class1.vb code file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click Class1.cs or Class1.vb, and then click Delete. You do not need this file for this walkthrough.

Defining a Dataset in the Class Library Project

Define a typed dataset that contains data from the AdventureWorksLT database for SQL Server 2005. Later in this walkthrough, you will reference this dataset from an Excel workbook project and a console application project.

The dataset is a typed dataset that represents the data in the Product table of the AdventureWorksLT database. For more information about typed datasets, see Working with Datasets in Visual Studio.

To define a typed dataset in the class library project

In Solution Explorer, click the AdventureWorksDataSet project.
On the Data menu, click Add New Data Source.

The Data Source Configuration Wizard opens.
Click Database, and then click Next.
If you have an existing connection to the AdventureWorksLT database, choose this connection and click Next.

Otherwise, click New Connection, and use the Add Connection dialog box to create the new connection. For more information, see Walkthrough: Inserting Data into a Workbook on a Server.
In the Save the Connection String to the Application Configuration File page, click Next.
In the Choose Your Database Objects page, expand Tables and select Product (SalesLT).
Click Finish.

The AdventureWorksLTDataSet.xsd file is added to the AdventureWorksDataSet project. This file defines the following items:
- A typed dataset named AdventureWorksLTDataSet. This dataset represents the contents of the Product table in the AdventureWorksLT database.
- A TableAdapter named ProductTableAdapter. This TableAdapter can be used to read and write data in the AdventureWorksLTDataSet. For more information, see TableAdapter Overview.
You will use both of these objects later in this walkthrough.
In Solution Explorer, right-click AdventureWorksDataSet and click Build.

Verify that the project builds without errors.

Creating an Excel Workbook Project

Create an Excel workbook project for the interface to the data. Later in this walkthrough, you will create a ListObject that displays the data, and you will add an instance of the dataset to the data cache in the workbook.

To create the Excel workbook project

In Solution Explorer, right-click the AdventureWorksDataSet solution, point to Add, and then click New Project.
In the templates pane, expand Visual C# or Visual Basic, and then expand Office.
Under the expanded Office node, select the 2007 or 2010 node.
In the list of project templates, select the Excel Workbook project.
In the Name box, type AdventureWorksReport. Do not modify the location.
Click OK.

The Visual Studio Tools for Office Project Wizard opens.
Ensure that Create a new document is selected, and click OK.

Visual Studio opens the AdventureWorksReport workbook in the designer and adds the AdventureWorksReport project to Solution Explorer.

Adding the Dataset to Data Sources in the Excel Workbook Project

Before you can display the dataset in the Excel workbook, you must first add the dataset to data sources in the Excel workbook project.

To add the dataset to the data sources in the Excel workbook project

In Solution Explorer, double-click Sheet1.cs or Sheet1.vb under the AdventureWorksReport project.

The workbook opens in the designer.
On the Data menu, click Add New Data Source.

The Data Source Configuration Wizard opens.
Click Object, and then click Next.
In the Select the Object You Wish to Bind to page, click Add Reference.
On the Projects tab, click AdventureWorksDataSet and then click OK.
Under the AdventureWorksDataSet namespace of the AdventureWorksDataSet assembly, click AdventureWorksLTDataSet and then click Finish.

The Data Sources window opens, and AdventureWorksLTDataSet is added to the list of data sources.

Creating a ListObject That Is Bound to an Instance of the Dataset

To display the dataset in the workbook, create a ListObject that is bound to an instance of the dataset. For more information about binding controls to data, see Binding Data to Controls in Office Solutions.

To create a ListObject that is bound to an instance of the dataset

In the Data Sources window, expand the AdventureWorksLTDataSet node under AdventureWorksDataSet.
Select the Product node, click the drop-down arrow that appears, and select ListObject in the drop-down list.

If the drop-down arrow does not appear, confirm that the workbook is open in the designer.
Drag the Product table to cell A1.

A ListObject control named productListObject is created on the worksheet, starting in cell A1. At the same time, a dataset object named adventureWorksLTDataSet and a BindingSource named productBindingSource are added to the project. The ListObject is bound to the BindingSource, which in turn is bound to the dataset object.

Adding the Dataset to the Data Cache

To enable code outside the Excel workbook project to access the dataset in the workbook, you must add the dataset to the data cache. For more information about the data cache, see Cached Data in Document-Level Customizations and Caching Data.

To add the dataset to the data cache

In the designer, click adventureWorksLTDataSet.
In the Properties window, set the Modifiers property to Public.
Set the CacheInDocument property to True.

Checkpoint

Build and run the Excel workbook project to ensure that it compiles and runs without errors.

To build and run the project

In Solution Explorer, right-click the AdventureWorksReport project, choose Debug, and then click Start new instance.

The project is built, and the workbook opens in Excel. The ListObject in Sheet1 is empty, because the adventureWorksLTDataSet object in the data cache has no data yet. In the next section, you will use a console application to populate the adventureWorksLTDataSet object with data.
Close Excel. Do not save changes.

Creating a Console Application Project

Create a console application project to use to insert data in the cached dataset in workbook.

To create the console application project

In Solution Explorer, right-click the AdventureWorksDataSet solution, point to Add, and then click New Project.
In the Project Types pane, expand Visual C# or Visual Basic, and then click Windows.
In the Templates pane, select Console Application.
In the Name box, type DataWriter. Do not modify the location.
Click OK.

Visual Studio adds the DataWriter project to Solution Explorer and opens the Program.cs or Module1.vb code file.

Adding Data to the Cached Dataset by Using the Console Application

Use the ServerDocument class in the console application to populate the cached dataset in the workbook with data.

To add data to the cached dataset

In Solution Explorer, right-click the DataWriter project and click Add Reference.
On the .NET tab, select Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument (if the DataWriter project targets the .NET Framework 4) or Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument.v10.0 (if the DataWriter project targets the .NET Framework 3.5).
Click OK.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the DataWriter project and click Add Reference.
On the Projects tab, select AdventureWorksDataSet, and click OK.
Open the Program.cs or Module1.vb file in the Code Editor.

Add the following using (for C#) or Imports (for Visual Basic) statement to the top of the code file.

Imports Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications;

Add the following code to the Main method. This code declares the following objects:

Instances of the AdventureWorksLTDataSet and ProductTableAdapter types that are defined in the AdventureWorksDataSet project.
The path to the AdventureWorksReport workbook in the build folder of the AdventureWorksReport project.
A ServerDocument object to use to access the data cache in the workbook.

Note

The following code assumes that you are using a workbook that has the .xlsx file extension. If the workbook in your project has a different file extension, modify the path as necessary.

Dim productDataSet As New AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSet()
Dim productTableAdapter As _
    New AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSetTableAdapters.ProductTableAdapter()

Dim workbookPath As String = System.Environment.GetFolderPath( _
    Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) & _
    "\AdventureWorksReport\bin\Debug\AdventureWorksReport.xlsx"
Dim serverDocument1 As ServerDocument = Nothing

AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSet productDataSet = 
    new AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSet();
AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSetTableAdapters.ProductTableAdapter productTableAdapter =
    new AdventureWorksDataSet.AdventureWorksLTDataSetTableAdapters.ProductTableAdapter();

string workbookPath = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(
    Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) +
    @"\AdventureWorksReport\bin\Debug\AdventureWorksReport.xlsx";
ServerDocument serverDocument1 = null;

Add the following code to the Main method, after the code you added in the previous step. This code performs the following tasks:

It fills the typed dataset object by using the table adapter.
It uses the CachedData property of the ServerDocument class to access the cached dataset in the workbook.
It uses the SerializeDataInstance method to populate the cached dataset with data from the local typed dataset.

Try
    productTableAdapter.Fill(productDataSet.Product)
    Console.WriteLine("The local dataset is filled.")

    serverDocument1 = New ServerDocument(workbookPath)
    Dim dataHostItem1 As CachedDataHostItem = _
        serverDocument1.CachedData.HostItems("AdventureWorksReport.Sheet1")
    Dim dataItem1 As CachedDataItem = dataHostItem1.CachedData("AdventureWorksLTDataSet")

    ' Initialize the worksheet dataset with the local dataset.
    If dataItem1 IsNot Nothing Then
        dataItem1.SerializeDataInstance(productDataSet)
        serverDocument1.Save()
        Console.WriteLine("The data is saved to the data cache.")
    Else
        Console.WriteLine("The data object is not found in the data cache.")
    End If
Catch ex As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
    Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)
Catch ex As System.IO.FileNotFoundException
    Console.WriteLine("The specified workbook does not exist.")
Finally
    If Not (serverDocument1 Is Nothing) Then
        serverDocument1.Close()
    End If
    Console.WriteLine(vbLf & vbLf & "Press Enter to close the application.")
    Console.ReadLine()
End Try

try
{
    productTableAdapter.Fill(productDataSet.Product);
    Console.WriteLine("The local dataset is filled.");

    serverDocument1 = new ServerDocument(workbookPath);
    CachedDataHostItem dataHostItem1 =
        serverDocument1.CachedData.HostItems["AdventureWorksReport.Sheet1"];
    CachedDataItem dataItem1 = dataHostItem1.CachedData["adventureWorksLTDataSet"];

    // Initialize the worksheet dataset with the local dataset.
    if (dataItem1 != null)
    {
        dataItem1.SerializeDataInstance(productDataSet);
        serverDocument1.Save();
        Console.WriteLine("The data is saved to the data cache.");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("The data object is not found in the data cache.");
    }
}
catch (System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
catch (System.IO.FileNotFoundException)
{
    Console.WriteLine("The specified workbook does not exist.");
}
finally
{
    if (serverDocument1 != null)
    {
        serverDocument1.Close();
    }

    Console.WriteLine("\n\nPress Enter to close the application.");
    Console.ReadLine();
}

In Solution Explorer, right-click the DataWriter project, point to Debug, and then click Start new instance.

The project is built, and the console application displays several status messages when the local dataset is filled and when the application saves the data to the cached dataset in the workbook. Press ENTER to close the application.

Testing the Workbook

When you open the workbook, the ListObject now displays data that was added to the cached dataset by using the console application.

To test the workbook

Close the AdventureWorksReport workbook in the Visual Studio designer, if it is still open.
In Windows Explorer, open the AdventureWorksReport workbook that is in the build folder of the AdventureWorksReport project. By default, the build folder is in one of the following locations:
- %UserProfile%\My Documents\AdventureWorksReport\bin\Debug (for Windows XP and earlier)
- %UserProfile%\Documents\AdventureWorksReport\bin\Debug (for Windows Vista)
Verify that the ListObject is populated with data after you open the workbook.

Next Steps

You can learn more about working with cached data from these topics:

Changing the data in a cached dataset without starting Excel. For more information, see Walkthrough: Changing Cached Data in a Workbook on a Server.
Inserting data into the data cache of a Word document as an array of bytes in memory, rather than saved to a hard disk. For more information, see How to: Insert Data in Documents Without Writing to Disk.