Component accessing Microsoft Excel spreadsheet via COM
In order to accommodate an ever increasing need for new telephone numbers in western Pennsylvania (usa), the 412 telephone area code was recently split into two area codes, 412 and 724. Whether a given phone number remained in the 412 area code or switched to the new 724 area code was determined by its exchange (first three digits). One of the effects of this change is that phone numbers must be updated in many databases and other electronic artifacts. The variety of artifacts to be updated is staggering: traditional databases from a number of vendors, spreadsheets, formatted text files, text documents and document templates, web pages, electronic business cards, address books in contact managers, and many others.
Such a problem provides a natural opportunity to use Flexible Packaging. The goal is to create a family of tools that all share a common function - the ability to update the area code of a phone number - but differ in the kind of database each updates. This case study involved creating three batch programs, each of which accesses a different kind of database: a Microsoft Access database; a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet; and a text file formatted with one record of comma-delimited values per line. The database and spreadsheet programs perform in-place updates of the data, while the text file program acts as a filter. All three programs share an identical ware but use different packagers, generated from UniCon descriptions. All three components run on a Pentium running Windows NT.
