Getting real time values from an excel feed

Question

Hello My application from the stockbroker has this button called "Start excelfeed" which opens an excel file and then updates the incoming prices in realtime. I want these prices extracted into my application (Java), but after several tries with jxl and poi ive found out it only extracts the values which occurred last time i saved the excel files. Are there any possible ways to extract these prices in real time? I'm not sure which method theyre using to feed the excel file, except their app is written in C#.

Answer 1

他们正在使用DDE技术，您应该使用Excel自动化将数据从Excel中提取到您的应用程序中。

Answer 2

You can have a look at the VBA code behind the "Start excelfeed" button by hitting Alt+F11 ... Then you can check how the excel macro taps into the data source und try to adapt that in Java

[EDIT] @Zico Sorry then I got you wrong. In that case I'd try to automate it via the Java Robot Class like user489041 suggested or you could fire up wireshark and try to snoop around the network traffic

Answer 3

In the old days, we used DDE links. Chances are your stockbroker addin uses precisely that.

Chances of using DDE from java are pretty slim (close to zero) because it is windows specific. However, possibly there are other methods involved (like COM components or TCP/IP connection). I'd suggest you get the values from teh stockbroker source like the Excelfeed, instead of going through Excel.

Of course, the problem with that is that you won't get help from the vendor of the Excel addin. If things are like they were 8 years ago, they are making tons on your buying the Excel addin and don't really want to help you program against that :)

Answer 4

最坏的情况是，您可以使用Java Robot类创建Excel电子表格，将Excel电子表格另存为CSV文件，然后从Java程序中读取CSV文件。

Answer 5

You can do this with solutions like Obba . Obba allows to access a Java virtual machine running the "Obba Server" directly from Excel.

For your problem, you have to "create" your application from the spreadsheet (load the jar, create an object representing you app - eg launching it in a separate thread). Then you can feed the app from Excel... - In this case, Excel is to some extend the "control program" of your app. However, if you start the Obba Server process manually, the process will keep on running if you close and re-open Excel.