Connect Office Apps to .NET with 'Lite' Web Services

摘要

In this article, I've shown how to convert data from ADO.NET into a form that can be used easily from VBA applications, and how to create lite web services to provide an interface between your Office VBA applications and your .NET functionality. You won't have to worry about providing the users with a potentially problematic setup program because this works with DLLs that are already installed on their machines. I successfully implemented this architecture in a hedge fund application that included a complex Excel spreadsheet for reporting purposes. The rest of the application was written in C# and ASP.NET, and I wanted the Excel component to access services in the .NET application, without any knowledge of the underlying database. I was able to use lite web services to easily create a secure way for the Excel application to communicate with the business layer in .NET. With lite web services, you now have the power to connect your Office applications to your .NET development efforts.