2.90:Microsoft Office Integration (Concept)

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202520232.90
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. CSV files are natively readable by Grooper in version 2.90. The Recognize activity is not required.

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 Data Access Components (MDAC) must match.

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

    If you have completed these prerequisites and both Office and the appropriate MDAC component's installed, you may see this error message if you select a Batch Folder in a Batch with an attached Excel file.

    If this is case, try closing Grooper Design Studio and re-open it as an administrator. This will create and/or provide access rights to the required directory indicated by the error message.

    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.

    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.
      • Notice imported Word documents will have the Word 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 a Word file.
    3. Select "Activities".
    4. Select "Execute".

    The Execute activity applies simple processing commands to a specified object type. To turn the imported Word file into a PDF file for further Grooper processing, you will indicate you want to process the Word Document object type and execute the Word to PDF 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 Word Document.
    4. Under Command, choose Word to PDF.
    5. Press "OK" to finish configuring the command.

    1. Press the "Execute" button to execute the command, converting the Word file to a PDF file.

    This will create a PDF copy of the Word document, stored on the document folder. This document is now viewable in Grooper's Document Viewer and contains all the native text data from the Word file. This document folder can now be processed by the Recognize activity to extract that native text for further document processing (classification, data extraction etc).

    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
      • SaveNew
      • Convert

    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 File Name property.

    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 imported file.
    2. The file named "Converted_to_CSV.csv" is the new, converted file.
      • And, it's named thusly because we indicated the files should be named "Converted_to_CSV", using the File Name property.

    Convert Conversion

    The Convert option will convert the Excel file to a CSV file and replace the native file.

    This is a "true" conversion. Rather than making a CSV copy of the Excel file in one way or another, the original Excel file is transformed into a CSV file.

    Seen in this image, the original native file has been converted from an XLSX file to a CSV file.

    • The file's name has changed from "MOCK_EXCEL_FILE.xlsx" to "MOCK_EXCEL_FILE.csv"
    FYI The original Excel file in this case had two sheets. The Convert option will combine the rows from multiple sheets into a single sheet, one after the other, with a blank row inserted between each sheet.

    Batch Processing Execution: Automating the Conversions

    When automating a Word to PDF or Excel to CSV conversion, you will add the Execute activity to a Batch Process. Once added to a Batch Process, its configuration to convert Word files into PDFs and Excel files into CSVs is the same as described above.

    To add the Execute activity to a Batch Process:

    1. Create or select a working Batch Process.
      • Batch Processes are stored and added to the Batch Processing > Processes > Working folder
    2. Press the "Add Step" button.
    3. Change the added step's Activity Type to Execute.
    4. Configure the Execute step as described above to convert native Word or Excel files for subsequent processing.
      • Add a Word to PDF command for the Microsoft Word object type to convert Word files to PDFs.
      • Add an Excel to CSV command for the Microsoft Excel object type to convert Excel files to CSV.

    Version Differences

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

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