Microsoft Office Integration (Concept)

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Revision as of 11:39, 29 March 2021 by Dgreenwood (talk | contribs)

2.9

This piece of functionality has undergone drastic changes since writing this article and the information may be outdated or inaccurate as of now.
Native text for Microsoft Office applications is a powerful data integration tool in Grooper.

Easier access to the contents of files from the worlds most used business application suite.

About

Microsoft Office integration allows a Grooper user to leverage the native text of files generated in the Microsoft Office Suite such as Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This feature can pull the native text from and perform type-specific activities on these files.

Supported File Types

  • Microsoft Word documents (.doc and.docx)
    • For Word documents, you can generate a Grooper-usable document with the Execute activity, using the Word to PDF command for the Word Document object type. The PDF will contain all the native text from the Word document, obtainable for further Grooper processing using the Recognize activity.
  • Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (xls and xlsx)
    • For Excel documents, you can generate a Grooper-usable document with the Execute activity, using the Excel to CSV command for the Excel Document object type.

How to Use

⚠

To make use of this feature, ensure that Microsoft Office is installed on the machine running Grooper Design Studio.

Furthermore, the bit version of Grooper and Microsoft Office must match.

  • If you are running the 64-bit version of Grooper, you must use the 64-bit version of Office.
  • If you are using the 32-bit version of Grooper you must use the 32-bit version of Office.

    • Ad Hoc Execution: Testing in Grooper Design Studio

    Like any Activity, the Execute activity can be applied to a document in an "ad hoc" manner in Grooper Design Studio. This is typical for Grooper architects testing and designing solutions before building a Batch Process.

    Excel Spreadsheets

    1. In Grooper Design Studio select a Batch that contains the desired documents.
    2. Right click the document whose native text you wish to view.
      • Notice imported Excel documents will have the Excel icon next to the native file's file name on the Batch Folder. This lets you know the document folder's native file (the one imported into Grooper) is an Excel file.
    3. Select "Activities".
    4. Select "Execute".

    The Execute activity applies simple processing commands to a specified object type. To turn the imported Excel file into a CSV file for further Grooper processing, you will indicate you want to process the Excel Document object type and execute the Excel to CSV command.

    1. From this window, you will configure the Execute activity.
    2. Select the Commands property and press the ellipsis button at the end to add a new command.

    1. The following window allows you to collect various commands for the Execute activity.
    2. Click the "Add" button to add a new command.
    3. Under Object Type', choose Excel Document.
    4. Under Command, choose Excel to CSV.

    1. The Command Settings property gives you some additional options for how the CSV file is converted from the native Excel file.
      • Press the ellipsis button at the end to select a conversion method.
    2. In the following window, select the Conversion Method property, using the dropdown menu to select one of the following three options:
      • Burst - To convert the Excel file to a CSV and saves the results as child object(s).
      • SaveNew - To convert the Excel file to a CSV and save the result as a new file.
      • Convert - To convert the native Excel file to a CSV and replace the native file.

    Burst Conversion

    The Burst option will convert the Excel file to a CSV file and saves the results as child object(s).

    This is the default, and most typical, configuration option. As seen in this image, if there are multiple sheets, they will be saved as multiple child objects of the document folder. The native Excel file had two sheets. So we get two child CSV files.

    SaveNew Conversion

    The SaveNew option will convert the Excel file to a CSV file and save the result as a new file. The new file is stored on the Batch Folder with the native file (More specifically, it is stored in the file store location associated with the Batch Folder.)

    When choosing this option, you will name the generated file using the

    As you can see in this image, the document folder has not one, but two files associated with it, as seen in the "Advanced > Files" tab.

    1. The file named "MOCK_EXCEL_FILE.xlsx" is the original file

    Getting a Result with Microsoft Word Documents

    1. In Grooper Design Studio select a Batch that contains the desired documents.
    2. Right click the document whose native text you wish to view.
    3. Under Activities, select Execute. From this window, add a command.
    4. Click the Add button to add a new command.
    5. Under Object Type, choose Word Document.
    6. Under Command, choose Word to PDF.


    Both Excel to CSV and Word to PDF can be run with the "Excel Document" or "Word Document" object commands, or added to a batch process via the Execute activity.


    Version Differences

    Prior to Grooper 2.9 files from the Microsoft Office Suite had to be rendered (essentially a "print...") to PDF in order to view contents and use activities more effectively.

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