Lesson 1: Set up an Excel worksheet

In this lesson, you create an Excel worksheet and use the Microsoft Excel Driver to define an ODBC data source. The Excel worksheet stores product information.

 To set up an Excel data source
  1. Open Microsoft Excel and create a new workbook.

  2. In the default worksheet, add the following contents under the respective A, B, C column headers:

    comment_id order_id order_comment
    2 1 Promotional material shipped
    3 1 More information about material required
  3. Change the default worksheet name Sheet1 to order_sheet.

    1. Double-click the Sheet1 tab.

    2. Type order_sheet.

  4. Save the Excel workbook.

    This tutorial assumes c:\MLobjexcel as the working directory for server-side components. Save the workbook as order_central.xlsx in this working directory.

  5. Use the Microsoft Excel Driver to create an ODBC data source:

    1. Click Start » Programs » SQL Anywhere 12 » Administration Tools » ODBC Data Source Administrator.

    2. Click the User DSN tab.

    3. Click Add.

    4. Click Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb).

    5. Click Finish.

    6. In the Data Source Name field, type excel_datasource.

    7. Click Select Workbook and browse to c:\MLobjexcel\order_central.xlsx, the file containing your worksheet.

    8. Uncheck the Read Only option.

    9. Click OK on all open ODBC Data Source Administrator windows.