yadda yadda for Dummies -- getting data into my VB thang

I posted this here, but realized it may have been in the wrong place. WDIK

yadda yadda for Dummies -- getting data into my project.

OK, here's another newbie question.

I run a third party app. I've been able to take data from that app, and by "pasting as link" into excel, manipulate the data (yes, "paste as link" was a new discovery for me, so now you get my level of experience).

Now I want to do more stuff with this data, stuff that is cumbersome in a spreadsheet. It would seem to me that if I can paste it into a spreadsheet and have it work in real time, it ought to be oh-so-much more easily accessible to my VB project. But, as usual, trying to figure out the protocol is akin to something, I suppose, like interpreting heiroglyphics.

Que pasa

here's an example of the link that was "paste Drinks special" and works so famously in excel, that 'm trying to read into my VB project:

Trade.Document|'C:\tt\x_trader\TTCONFIG\chas1_Mini_cME\Trade 1.ttt'!'\Item#85F8658'

Any direction would be helpful.

"Fuhgawdsakes Jim! I'm a trader, not a programmer!"

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yadda yadda for Dummies -- getting data into my VB thang

Sir_Penguin

Try the videos here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/atthemovies/default.aspx

You can download them if you want. They may take awhile to get all of them, but they are pretty good. They are designed for .Net 1.1, but most of the same stuff applies.

Eric

http://www.programmers-corner.com/forums/
Jishnu

For automating Excel from .NET:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/q301982/

For File Watching, look up the FileSystemWatcher class (it's in the System.IO namespace). I haven't used it yet, in .NET, but it looks like it wrappers a lot of the hoops needed to monitor files using the Win32 API.

Hope that's a start for you.
John Siegel
thx ed.
ppv

I have signed up for the developer program w/xtrader, specifically so that I could solve this problem.

However, as I state in my forum signature, I'm a trader, not a programmer. This machine is a tool I use to do what i do better. So I really don't feel like going down the pike as a "developer."

The last I spoke to them, one of the programmers mentioned the RTD Excel interface and he was obviously high on it. I wasn't as I want to create a stand alone executable -- it's just easier for me. I still think it should be a simple affair to get the data I've pasted into Excel into my app -- as I think you are alluding with the OLE thread. Hopefully this answers your questions.

About hiring... not that I know of, but I'll email you, you can respond there.

And by all means, if you can point me in the right direction on the OLE thing, I'm all ears.
Baber Afzal

is this like a quote service you subscibe to do they make it available as a web service then a SOAP wrapper is all you need. It is very easy to do given the OO nature of .Net.

if not you can use the web browser control to open the page. use the exposed document object off of the web browser to access the particular element object. and use properties of the element object to get the data.

shoot me an email over the weekend and we will hash it out!
Borat
thx sj.
Adwait Vaidya

It sounds like you need to write a program which mimics what Excel does. Not a small task. However, if you know the format of the data you would use some kind of StreamReader to read it in (hence the responses you got about binary format, etc.) You could also monitor the file (a file monitor) in your program to check for changes to the file, and re-read it when it's changed (to get a 'live update' of the data).

Alternatively, you could use OLE with excel, have excel import the data then transfer the specific data you are interested in to your application (a bit messy but could work).

Once you've read the data you would have to display it in some way to your liking: only you can answer that one.
sri_t
I'm not sure how much of this applies...it is a data service over the net, but it's not a web page -- it's a trading app. So, it's not that I open a browser and go to their page -- I open an app that resides on my machine that has a quote page -- and it is from this that I have pasted the link.
Themeros

ok, i think you're on to something. can you tell me just a bit more about monitoring the file as one possibility and OLE as another

thanks,

sisl
SRW

Blair,

I'm not exactly sure how to answer that, I'm not familiar enough with the nomenclature. What I am trying to do is get the data in question, which I can get into excel via the link I posted, and access it from within my VB app. The data is live price data -- always changing...I suppose its streaming, but I'm not sure.

If I can get the data from the link without having to put into excel first, all the better. If it's easier to just refer to the cell in a spreadsheet where I have put the link, I'll settle for that. I'm not trying to control a spreadsheet or anything fancy like that. I only need access to the data that shows up at the link.

Does that answer your question

Thx.
BethR

eh. . . not really.

x_trader is obviously an OLE server. .Net does not have a native ole container control. you could host it in a WebBrowser control. this will be difficult.

the thing to do would be interop the typelib that x_trader has registered.

I have the feeling that this is getting beyond your capabilities.

I would step back for a second. . .

What do you want to accomplish

Do you want to right a program that interacts live with the x_trader program and traffics the x_trader data into your own programs

This is very simple to do, given you understand OLE Automation. And OLE Automation isn't hard either but it can take some hands on experience to figure out how to get to the objects that are published by the application.

Question. . . would this be within the guidelines of the x_trader end user license

Have you asked them if there is an 'OLE Automation Object Model Reference' for x_trader

Is your firm hiring
Paulo Vinicius

hey,

could I stick a datagridview into my app, and refer one of the cells to the link
Brian Kramer

Are you saying you want to open an html/xml document and grab the value inside some tag

Or you want to implement paste functionality
GillianR
could really use some help on this.... I've searched and scanned and read here and on the net and the closest I come is some chatter about binary reader...
yadda yadda for Dummies -- getting data into my VB thang

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