Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Excel help

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2015, 01:47 PM:

I'm having an Excel problem which is causing me to pull my remaining hair out.

For years I have created our work schedule on a spreadsheet. I then "save as web page" in Excel with the file name "index.htm" and I load that into a folder called calendar on website. So the employees can just go to roxytheatre.net/calendar and the schedule comes up.

Last week my office computer crashed so I'm doing all this on a different computer which has a different (newer) version of Excel. When I follow the EXACT same process, now the calendar URL comes back with:

The requested URL /calendar/index_files/sheet001.htm was not found on this server.

I notice that in that error message it appears to be looking for a subfolder - which I found and uploaded it into the same folder on the website -- but even with that subfolder there I'm still getting the same error message. I've tried Chrome, Explorer, Safari all with the same results. Anybody got any ideas?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-31-2015, 02:47 PM:

What is sheet001.htm? Note that it's not the index.htm file that you think it is.

I just went to roxytheatre.net/calendar and I got a calendar from Oct 25-December 5, which I assume is what you expect to have there.

You might want to look at the index.htm file on your computer with a text editor (Windows notepad maybe) and see what it's actually doing. Do a search for the words "sheet001.htm" and you might find interesting things.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 10-31-2015, 03:51 PM:

Get yourself am FTP program (FileZilla comes to mind) and see whats really in the calendar directory on the server. Sounds to me like it really isn't what you think it is. I suspect Excel created sheet001 instead of index.htm. Just a guess though.

I also took a look at your page and noticed its trying to load your favicon (to display along with the web address) and can't find the file. http://roxytheatre.net/favicon.ico

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-31-2015, 04:19 PM:

If you don't have shell access to the webserver that you're using, then one of the easiest ways to manage a webpage is sitecopy.

If you do have shell access, use rsync.

Either way (rsync or sitecopy) you simply create a complete local copy of your website on your computer, then tell the program to make the directory on the webserver look just like that one.

It's easy to make changes and test stuff that way -- if it doesn't work locally then it won't work on your webserver so don't sync it until it does. And you always know what's on the remote (webserver) end, too.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2015, 08:32 PM:

quote: Frank Cox
What is sheet001.htm? Note that it's not the index.htm file that you think it is.

I just went to roxytheatre.net/calendar and I got a calendar from Oct 25-December 5, which I assume is what you expect to have there.

I have a feeling the "problem" has arisen from me using a newer Excel version. I was using 2003 on the old computer.

Previously I would "save as" a webpage, which would create a html file. I would copy that to the server and that was that.

Now, using Excel 2010 on this computer, if I follow that same process and copy that file to the server, it shows up in a directory listing but it can't be found by a browser.

The save-as process creates a folder called "index_files" (which is where it LOOKS LIKE the missing html file is) so I copied that folder to the server but the calendar still can't be found.

There is a calendar there now because I quick-built an HTML version with FrontPage just to get it up there for my crew. I guess if I can't figure this out I'll just keep using that version, which is easier to do fast updates on but more of a pain to edit the whole month.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-31-2015, 09:42 PM:

Don't copy the folder to the server. Just copy the file named index.htm from that folder.

If it's in a folder on the server then you have to specify the name of the folder in the url as well, and you don't want that.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2015, 09:55 PM:

The "save as web page" function creates:

- a file named index.htm
- a folder named index_files with a file in it "sheet001.htm" (and a couple other files)

I did copy the index.htm file to start with, which is when the problems surfaced.

If you look at that error message it appears that it "can't find" the sheet001.htm file which is supposedly located in the index_files folder. So I copied that folder and still got the same result from the browser -- but the ftp program DOES show the index.htm file in the proper place on the website. So...?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-31-2015, 10:22 PM:

So what are the contents of index.htm and sheet0001.htm?

html files are plain text, so you can look at them with any text editor.

Email them to me and I'll take a look at them for you if you don't know what to look for.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 11-01-2015, 09:09 AM:

What is in the index_files folder? My guess is it is index.htm. Try renaming it sheet001.htm and see what happens. Maybe the index.htm file you created is referencing sheet001.htm in the index_files folder. Either way, reading out the contents of YOUR index.htm should yield the answer.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-02-2015, 10:53 AM:

Well, I looked at all the files. On MY computer, when I look at it in a browser, index.htm is the calendar as it should look.

The index_files folder has:

stylesheet.css (list of formatting styles for the calendar)
filelist.xml (list of all the files in the folder, seems redundant but whatever)
sheet001.htm (the calender, without formatting)
tabstrip.htm (image of the tabs that appear when viewing the calendar in Excel)

So, seems like it SHOULD work since I'm uploading the index file AND the index_files folder to the server. If the index file is referencing a file in the index_files folder, why isn't it showing up?

I'm about ready to bag the whole process and just use the calendar I created in Front Page going forward, which is a little more work but not that much.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 11-02-2015, 12:07 PM:

Load index.htm into a text editor and search for the word "index_files". Is that word present in the index.htm? If so, what is the context?

Does the calendar look ok to you if you view it locally on your own computer? Load the index.htm file that's present on your computer into a web browser and see what happens.

Is it possible that you have a permission problem on the remote end? The webserver that you're using runs apache 2.2.31 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Do you have a .htaccess file in that directory? If so, are you sure that you know what it's doing?

Is it possible that you have both an index.htm file and a index.html file in /calendar directory?

The problem that you have is either on your end (with the actual generated html files) or on the other end (least likely: webserver misconfiguration; most likely: improper file permissions). If it looks ok on your end, then that eliminates one source of grief.

What happens if you copy index.htm to a different location on your computer and view that in a web browser? That's an easy way to find out if index.htm is actually an independent and complete web page or if it depends on the files in the index_files directory.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-03-2015, 11:49 AM:

Well I followed all your advice and I'm still stumped.

I copied the index file into a different spot and it does open as a complete page with all the formatting etc.

I highly doubt the problem is on the other end because nothing has changed there from last month to this month, that I'm aware of anyway.

Literally the only thing tha'ts changed is the computer I'm working from. (And, I got the old computer back now so I just need to reload Office onto it and that'll give me back my ancient Excel version so that'll probably fix the problem until I upgrade.)

I did look at the index file in a text editor and there are lots of references to index_files folder -- and I can see why, because the actual calendar content (names, etc.) does not show up, so that's apparently why it needs to reference the other file that's located in the index_files folder. But I AM COPYING that folder to the server so it doesn't make sense that it can't be found.

As I said above I'm about resigned to going ahead with the "alternate" solution anyway. It's a little more work but there are things I do like about doing it that way. (I keep looking into work-schedule creating software that would make this a lot easier task but everything I like is too f-ing expensive.)

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 11-03-2015, 12:44 PM:

An alternate solution might be to print your spreadsheet to a PDF file schedule.pdf then upload it to the server. Change the URL to roxytheater.net/schedule.pdf.

Just curious, what version of Excel is giving you problems?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 11-03-2015, 01:19 PM:

Are you sure that the file permissions for the index_files folder are set such that apache can read the contents?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 11-03-2015, 05:27 PM:

This is not super-tight, I just had a quick go on it on my Mac with Excel2004 and 2008.

I noticec that EXCEL creates an html-file + folder structure when you have multiple sheets in your work book. The Website export will then create a navigation structure to access the other sheets from the index page to simulate the workbook/worksheet access scheme in Excel.

Try to erase those empty sheets in Excel until only your schedule sheet is left, or, if that option exists in your version of Excel, try to use the 'Sheet only' save option. Check if only one file is created, rename if necessary.

- Carsten

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-03-2015, 09:11 PM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
I noticec that EXCEL creates an html-file + folder structure when you have multiple sheets in your work book.

Carsten I have a feeling you have nailed it. When I "rescued" the calendar file, I copied it back from the website to my computer, then loaded it in Excel, then saved it as a spreadsheet. I'm sure that the resulting saved spreadsheet includes the standard Excel 3-worksheets, and it's those extra sheets that are gumming up the works.

Right now the computer I did the work on is shut down and I haven't yet reinstalled the older Excel on the one I'm using now (at the theatre) but I'd bet anything that's going to be the solution.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-01-2015, 07:25 PM:

WEll -- good thing I didn't "bet anything" (as in the above post) because I did delete those extra sheets and the resulting files are the same.

I tried the "sheet only" option but when I click "Save" it goes to the Publish dialog and gives me another error message about that directory not being available even though it's RIGHT THERE ON MY #&%*# COMPUTER.

To add to this madness, I created an HTML calendar and that worked fine -- last month. This month, my FTP program refuses to upload the new version of THAT file. It just sits there and finally crashes and says "Unable to start transfer." Even though other files will transfer to the same server just fine. I've been on the phone with our help line and they are stumped.

I'm beginning to wonder if I've died and gone to hell, or something.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 12-01-2015, 08:04 PM:

Why not convert to a google doc? Very easy to do.

Posted by Doug Mercille (Member # 7738) on 12-24-2015, 06:36 AM:

Not sure if you figured this out or not but have you tried to publish the file instead of saving.