Get DocumentProperties without opening the file

Hi,


We use flexcel in a migration process which involves a lot of massive Excel files (both .xls and .xlsx).
This process is based on a version number stored in the excel file itself. 
Basically, if the version number indicates that the file is up to date, nothing is done, otherwise the upgrade of the file structure is performed.

Our problem is that most files are up to date, and reading the version number is a very heavy process because it requires to fully open the Excel file. This creates a huge unecessary overhead in our process.

To solve this, we would like to store the version number in the DocumentProperties, but the Flexcel API still requires to load the document to read the DocumentProperties.
We tried DsoFile.dll, but the 64 bits compatibility problems are a show stopper for us.

In there a way we could access DocumentProperties without actually opening the whole Excel file ( static method ?). Is it something that could be added to the API ?

Thanks

Guillaume Baurand 

Hi,

I think it could be added to the API yes, we will see if it is possible. On the other hand, what you could do is to use "Virtual Mode" and set the next sheet to null so sheets aren't read:

 public void OnStartReading(object sender, VirtualCellStartReadingEventArgs e)
  { 
     e.NextSheet = null;
}

(take a look at the "Virtual mode" demo for more information). You might even use a sheet in the Excel file to store the version, and read only that sheet using Virtual mode, if you prefer this to setting the version in the properties.

Could this work for you?  You can run the virtual mode demo with your files, selecting a single sheet (and the checkbox "only first 50 rows") to see if the speed is enough before coding it yourself, but I think it will be. 

Regards,
   Adrian.

Hi


Thanks a lot for your quick reply. We'll dig into this to see if it could be a solution.

Nevertheless, adding a direct access to the DocumentProperty would be an much appreciated feature if I judge by the number of projects relying on the quircky Dsofile solution to do this.

Thanks

Guillaume

Yes, we will see if we can add some direct support too. It is just that we have a lot of things on our plate right now (we are working in full conditional formatting support, native winrt, native wpf, winphone8 and monotouch right now).

And every feature, as small as it can be, means testing it, supporting, maintaining it.

So while it would indeed be nice, it is still possible to read properties with dsofile, and for small files it isn't a problem to read the whole file. But it is not possible to use flexcel in winrt right now. Also because of demand, winrt gets priority. But after we ship 6.0, we will try to add this support. (if there isn't anything new that gets more priority).

But as this can take a while, I think looking at virtual mode is the best bet now.