How to: Refresh Data

Article
10/16/2013

This example shows how to retrieve updated data from external data sources for the open workbook by using the Refresh method. The Excel Web Services signature for the Refresh method is as follows:

public Status[] Refresh (string sessionId, string connectionName)

If you link directly to Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.WebServices.dll, the signature for the Refresh method is:

public void Refresh (string sessionId, string connectionName, 
    out Status[] status)

The connectionName argument refers to the connection name in a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbook.

You can use the Refresh method to refresh a single data connection in the workbook, or to refresh all connections. This is useful particularly when the connections are created without refresh-on-open functionality.

When you refresh a connection, the data and all objects using the connection will be refreshed. To refresh all available connections in the workbook, you pass in an empty connection string or null for the connection name argument.

The refresh operations will be attempted regardless of the type of authentication used, without any further confirmation or prompt.

For more information about the Refresh method, see the Excel Web Services reference documentation.

Example

The following code sample shows how to call the Refresh method using Excel Web Services. The connection name in this example is "MyInventoryConnection":

// Instantiate the Web service. 
ExcelService xlservice = new ExcelService();
Status[] outStatus;
RangeCoordinates rangeCoordinates = new RangeCoordinates();
string sheetName = "Sheet3";

// Set the path to the workbook to open.
// TODO: Change the path to the workbook
// to point to a workbook you have access to.
// The workbook must be in a trusted location.
string targetWorkbookPath = 
    http://myserver02/example/Shared%20Documents/Book1.xlsx";
            
// Set credentials for requests.
xlservice.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

// Call open workbook, and point to the trusted   
// location of the workbook to open.
string sessionId = xlservice.OpenWorkbook(targetWorkbookPath, "en-US", "en-US", out outStatus);
 
// Prepare object to define range coordinates.
rangeCoordinates.Column = 0;
rangeCoordinates.Row = 0;
rangeCoordinates.Height = 8;
rangeCoordinates.Width = 10;

// Set the cell located in the first row and 
// ninth column to 300.
xlservice.SetCell(sessionId, sheetName, 0, 8, 300); 
xlservice.Refresh(sessionId, "MyInventoryConnection");

If you link directly to Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server.WebServices.dll, the equivalent code is:

// Instantiate the ExcelService class.
ExcelService xlservice = new ExcelService();
Status[] outStatus;
RangeCoordinates rangeCoordinates = new RangeCoordinates();
string sheetName = "Sheet3";

// Set the path to the workbook to open.
// TODO: Change the path to the workbook
// to point to a workbook you have access to.
// The workbook must be in a trusted location.
string targetWorkbookPath = 
    http://myserver02/example/Shared%20Documents/Book1.xlsx";
            
// Call the open workbook, and point to the trusted 
// location of the workbook to open.
string sessionId = xlservice.OpenWorkbook(targetWorkbookPath, "en-US", "en-US", out outStatus);
                
// Set the cell located in the first row and 
// ninth column to 300.
xlservice.SetCell(sessionId, sheetName, 0, 8, 300, out outStatus); 
xlservice.Refresh(sessionId, "MyInventoryConnection", out outStatus);

byte[] workbook = xlService.GetWorkbook(sessionId, WorkbookType.FullWorkbook, out status);

// Write the resulting Excel file to stdout 
// as a binary stream.
BinaryWriter binaryWriter = 
    new BinaryWriter(Console.OpenStandardOutput());
binaryWriter.Write(workbook);
binaryWriter.Close();
...
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How to: Refresh Data

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