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Excel template getting corrupted after ftp

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November 21, 2007, 03:15 PM
Luminita
Excel template getting corrupted after ftp
Hi,

I'm not sure this is the proper place to ask this question, but I'm hoping that since you guys have a lot of experience you might have seen this issue, or something similar before.

We have a report that sends the output to multiple sheets in a workbook. Then, there are a few sheets that are gathering data from the output sheets of the report and they just display various values. For example, on sheet1 we have a cell that does something like this: =’OutputSheet2’!A2.
The report is currently scheduled through Report Caster and it works like a charm. However, due to easier monitoring, we want to schedule the report in Autosys. After the report executes, it is saved on the Unix box. If emailed directly to users, no problem. But if we try to ftp the file to a Windows location, the formulae that are on the displaying sheets just get corrupted. Some characters get randomly replaced with the = sign. For example, instead of the formula I have above, I see something like =’OutputShe=t’!A2. When we try to open the xls file we get a “Problems during load” error and then we’re prompted to update the links.

We tried a bunch of things, ftps ascii, binary, and we can’t seem to understand what’s going on. One other thing, as I was just playing around with the template (.mht) I decided to just copy it on my local machine. So, in Dev Studio, I just copied the file and then pasted it on my machine. I get the same error when I try to open the template on my local machine.

Did anyone see anything like this before?
Thanks,
Luminita


7.6.6 on AIX platform
Output: variety (Excel, HTML and PDF)
November 25, 2007, 02:12 PM
FortuneCookie
Found this on Google, hope it helps

http://groups.google.com/group/spreadsheet-writeexcel/b...ead/68c5a53485ab85b7
November 26, 2007, 09:46 AM
PBrightwell
Part of the problem (if not all of it) is because you are going to a UNIX server. I have hit a problem similar to this. You can store and use the .mht file on the UNIX server, but you can't open it there. .mht is an Excel format and Excel does not exist on your UNIX server. I'm surprised it worked in Report Caster because it was my understanding that the last hold had to be a PCHOLD. I think the problem you had pasting the .mht file to your computer was because you were in Dev Studio, try it from Excel or just do a straight copy/paste from a mapped drive. If that doesn't work it is possible that your .mht file has been corrupted and you will have to rebuild it. When I was working with a template I always saved the original Excel file and a copy of the .mht on my desktop.


Pat
WF 7.6.8, AIX, AS400, NT
AS400 FOCUS, AIX FOCUS,
Oracle, DB2, JDE, Lotus Notes
November 28, 2007, 04:27 PM
Luminita
Thank you for your help. We're still working on this, I'll let you know if we come up with a good solution.


7.6.6 on AIX platform
Output: variety (Excel, HTML and PDF)
November 29, 2007, 09:28 AM
PBrightwell
If you can map a network drive to your Unix server, you should be able to open the .mht file. It will actually be opening on your desktop using the Excel on your PC. If you can not open it or it contains code rather than your form it really has gotten corrupted. This happened to me on two different occasions when copying the file from our dev server to our production server rather than saving it from Excel on the production server as an .mht file.


Pat
WF 7.6.8, AIX, AS400, NT
AS400 FOCUS, AIX FOCUS,
Oracle, DB2, JDE, Lotus Notes
November 29, 2007, 03:29 PM
susannah
seems like the problem is Autosys.
Have you tried changing your fex to
1)map to a windows drive,
2) filedef your output to that mapped drive,
3) on table hold as myexcel format exl2k
..bypassing any mail server differences that autosys might be producing. If the result doesn't work, then you at least know its Autosys. If the resulting file does work, then ..uh..maybe the problem is in b/w autosys and ftp ?




In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID
January 09, 2008, 09:14 AM
Luminita
Hi,
Not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I figured I should post an update.

After trying a variety of things, someone in our team came up with these steps that seem to fix the issue of the template getting corrupted.

- After the report executes, run unix2dos on that output file
- create a dynamic .par file in a temp folder
- run a shell script to ftp the par file
- delete par file

Many thanks to everyone who posted suggestions.
Luminita


7.6.6 on AIX platform
Output: variety (Excel, HTML and PDF)