![]() |
In this article, Jibril Khedimallah proposes a basic approach of Convertigo C-EMS using Microsoft Excel. |
Thanks to Convertigo’s C-EMS solution it’s easy to cost-effectively track down the data that you need, from wherever it is. And sometimes, these data required to be analyzed and interpreted. In order to fulfill these requirements, Microsoft Excel represents the most popular and efficient solution.
That’s why we are proposing you a Microsoft Excel workbook solution with which it is possible to call Convertigo sequences or Convertigo transactions, and to put the returned results into a Microsoft Excel sheet format, allowing to you the entire ownership of the extracted data.
Download the solution: Convertigo_excel.zip
Using Convertigo C-EMS through Microsoft Excel
In order to execute Convertigo sequences or Convertigo transactions from Microsoft Excel, a basic interface is available in the workbook. This interface is as a form where it’s possible to fill several fields in order to execute the wanted Convertigo C-EMS action. This workbook has been tested on Microsoft Excel 2003 and Microsoft Excel 2007 versions.
The form
Executing a request may take several seconds, according to the size of returned data, you must be patient :). Once the request is done, a new Microsoft Excel worksheet appears containing the execution results. A new worksheet will be created for each execution.
Pre-requisites:
Performing Visual Basic application code (see “Solution’s architecture” paragraph), the workbook needs macros to be enabled. If it’s not, please follow the instructions below:
Microsoft Excel 2007:

Microsoft Excel 2003:
Don’t forget to restart the workbook after having applied the settings.
Use case
To a better understanding, let’s perform the demonstration “demo_usDirectory” available on the demos’ server of Convertigo “demo.convertigo.net/cems”.
We will use an existing project, so you should be able to easily reproduce this sample.
The purpose of this use case will be to call the transaction usdSearchByName available in the Convertigo’s demonstration project demo_usDirectory. Through this transaction, Convertigo C-EMS will perform a search on the http://www.usdirectory.com/ web site and return the resulting data as an XML document.
So let’s fill the request form in order to search the Adobe Company located in San Francisco, California:
Filled Form
Once the form has been filled, you can execute the given sequence or transaction by clicking the Execute button. This action can take several seconds and will open a new Microsoft Excel worksheet containing the generated XML mapped into a Microsoft Excel worksheet format:
Execution results
The data now available in a Microsoft Excel worksheet, you can manipulate them as you want.
Solution’s architecture
This solution is based on the VBA (Visual Basic Application) programming language. Interpreted by Microsoft Excel, the VBA language allows us to automate processes and increase our efficiency.
So, through a VBA script integrated in the Microsoft Excel workbook, it is possible to execute a Convertigo sequence or a Convertigo transaction and get the result just by clicking the button Execute:
Visual Basic Application Solution
Because the Convertigo Server returns the transaction or sequence response as an XML document, mapping this one is needed. This mapping determinates how the data will be organized in the Microsoft Excel “ExecutionResults” worksheet.
That’s why, if you want to modify the way the VBA script is rendering the result, you must modify the following methods in order to fulfill your expectations (the folowing methods will display the entirety of the XML document):
BrowseXMLDocument:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 | Private Sub BrowseXMLDocument(ByVal vXML As String) Dim xmlDoc As domDocument, root As IXMLDOMElement Dim i As Long Dim c As Long Set xmlDoc = New domDocument xmlDoc.async = False xmlDoc.LoadXML (vXML) Set root = xmlDoc.DocumentElement If Not root Is Nothing Then If wks.UsedRange.Cells.Count = 1 Then Set rng = wks.Cells(1) Else Set rng = wks.Cells(wks.UsedRange.Rows.Count + 1, 1) End If With rng .Value = root.BaseName .Offset(0, 1).Value = root.nodeTypeString .Offset(0, 2).Value = root.NodeValue .Offset(0, 3).Value = root.Text For c = 0 To root.Attributes.Length - 1 .Offset(0, c + 4).Value = root.Attributes.Item(c).BaseName .Offset(0, c + 5).Value = root.Attributes.Item(c).NodeValue Next c End With BrowseChildNodes root End If wks.Cells(1).EntireRow.Insert xlShiftDown With wks.Cells(1) .Value = "baseName" .Offset(0, 1).Value = "nodeTypeString" .Offset(0, 2).Value = "nodeValue" .Offset(0, 3).Value = "text" c = 1 For i = 4 To wks.UsedRange.Columns.Count - 1 Step 2 .Offset(0, i).Value = "attribute" & c .Offset(0, i + 1).Value = "Value" & c c = c + 1 Next i End With wks.Rows(1).Font.Bold = True End Sub
|
BrowseChildNodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | Private Sub BrowseChildNodes(root_node As IXMLDOMNode) Dim i As Long Dim c As Long Dim rng As Range For i = 0 To root_node.ChildNodes.Length - 1 If root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).NodeType 3 Then If wks.UsedRange.Cells.Count = 1 Then Set rng = wks.Cells(1) Else Set rng = wks.Cells(wks.UsedRange.Rows.Count + 1, 1) End If With rng .Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).BaseName .Offset(0, 1).Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).nodeTypeString .Offset(0, 2).Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).NodeValue .Offset(0, 3).Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).Text For c = 0 To root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).Attributes.Length - 1 .Offset(0, c + 4).Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).Attributes.Item(c).BaseName .Offset(0, c + 5).Value = root_node.ChildNodes.Item(i).Attributes.Item(c).NodeValue Next c End With End If BrowseChildNodes root_node.ChildNodes(i) Next End Sub |