Frequently asked questions

What is xlsgen?

xlsgen is a software component which reads, writes, prints and calculates any Excel 97 / 2000 / XP / 2003 / 2007 spreadsheets.

What makes xlsgen better than the competition?

Price (compared at equivalent feature level, xlsgen is by far a less expensive server). Support. Features. Versatility of programming languages. Backwards compatibility. Calculation engine. Automatic source code generation. Advanced features : sparklines, html cells, ...

Who is Plimus?

Plimus is a payment processing partner who is in this business for a long time. They are based in San Diego, and support a number of payment modes and currencies. They let xlsgen customers purchase licenses, and provide registration numbers in return.

Who is ARsT Design?

The company owning, developing and distributing xlsgen. The independent software development company is enjoying her fourth year of xlsgen sales.

Do I need Excel installed to use xlsgen?

No.

What programming languages are supported?

All COM compatible programming languages are supported. This includes, without naming them all, VB, VBScript, VBA, VB.NET, C#, C, C++, Java, Delphi, Perl, Python.

What execution environments are supported?

You can run xlsgen on a number of execution environments : Third-party dll running inside an arbitrary process, a console/winforms .NET application, a server-side ASP/ASP.NET/PHP service.

Is Windows 64-bit supported?

Yes, native 64-bit versions of the xlsgen files are available as part of the install.

What localized versions exist?

The product object model as well as the documentation is all in English. Formulas can be expressed in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. You can make a feature request for future localized versions.

Is it Windows-only?

Yes.

Are administrative rights required to install the product?

Yes. The program installs in the standard Program Files directory, and thus requires administrative rights.

Are administrative rights required to run the product?

No.

Can the Windows XP/Vista limited user restrictions cause access problems?

Probably yes for the License Tool. When you provide a license file to the License Tool, the file is copied to the xlsgen install folder which by default is installed in the standard Program Files folder. Unfortunately, under limited user restrictions, write access to this folder is blocked. If that case occurs, one of the two following solutions can be followed : 1) get a temporary administrative privilege, and manually copy your license file in the xlsgen install folder. Remember to make sure that this file is called xlsgen.license.lic. 2) Or reinstall the product in a folder like C:\Documents And Settings\<user name>\Application Data\xlsgen_ARsTDesign.

Can I open Excel files created/updated by xlsgen on my Mac (using Office for Mac) or using OpenOffice?

Probably yes. The answer is not definitive due to the sheer number of products and combinations that make the testing matrix too large to be affordable at the moment. But xlsgen produces native, regular Excel files.

How do I upgrade?

Uninstall. Download the update. Reinstall. There is a tool part of the install called Check Update which lets you know whether a newer version is available on the xlsgen website.

Bug fixes?

Provided for free for the current major version being distributed, and an ongoing basis. If you own a license of version 2.x, then you are entitled to get any 2.x.x.y release, and for free. For instance, if you own a license of version 2.1, you are entitled to get 2.1.0.1, 2.1.0.2, ... for free.

How does the licensing file xlsgen.license.lic work?

When you download a license file from the xlsgen website, by going first to the License Tool and choosing the license, you need to provide it to the License Tool itself in order to do the final step of registering your license (see bottom of the user interface dialog). It creates a copy of the file in the xlsgen install folder. The xlsgen.license.lic file is loaded and checked everytime xlsgen runs.

How do I get an idea of what xlsgen can do in five minutes?

Just run one of the numerous code samples provided in the install.

How do I get started without learning the object model?

Start the automatic source code generation tool (xlscodegen.exe) and provide it with an existing Excel file. Choose the programming language of your choice. And voilà, source code ready to use without writing anything.

What are the types of license available to me?

The deployment license lets you install and run the product on multiple machines.

Can I run xlsgen from Terminal server?

Yes. Clients can use a Terminal client (or Remote desktop client).

Can I deploy xlsgen across my network?

Yes. More details here.

Can I deploy xlsgen's run-time with my product as an ISV (Independent software vendor)?

Yes. More details here.

I am unsure about the COM registration since my last update. How can I re-register it?

Bring the Windows Start menu, select Run, and type regsvr32 "c:\program files\xlsgen\xlsgen.dll", and press enter. You should receive a message telling that DllRegister has succeeded.

Is the COM registration mandatory?

No. Regardless your programming language and execution environment, you can use a COM-free technique described here to avoid COM registration at all.

Has COM registration anything to do with my license registration?

No.

Server-side environments ASP, ASP.NET or PHP prevent me from writing on the file system. What do I do?

Server applications have default security options which prevent writing on the file system. For ASP/ASP.NET, the steps are described here. For PHP, you probably want to change the folder write options using a command-line such as chmod <folder> 777.

Is there any known trap not to fall when executing .NET applications?

It is a known fact that the .NET garbage collector (implementation is owned by Microsoft) may act irresponsibly for running objects such as xlsgen's. To ensure that the running xlsgen instance does not get disconnected or garbage collected before you're done with it, you may want to declare the xlsgen main engine class as a class member instead of a local object. More best practices are described here.

How can I insert a pivot table in xlsgen?

You can create an Excel file by hand, and then reopen this file in xlsgen using the engine.Open method call instead of engine.New method call. This mechanism does not only work for pivot tables, but for all objects and features not yet supported by xlsgen.

When I write values in pre-formatted cells, the formatting gets lost.

Use the StyleOption = styleoption_preserve option available from the workbook object. There is a screen-recorded demo available here (Flash required) which shows how this works.

Support email?

. Two business days for an answer.