New release: v2.0.4

Over the last month a three versions has been released (2.0.1 - 2.0.3) and here we go again - 2.0.4 is out!

Whats new:

*Extended support for enumerations
*Works on Windows 7 (beta)
*UI enhancements
*Performance improvements
*Minor fixes

Let's have a more close look at the changes.

Extended support for enumerations:

Now you can specify value of the enum parameters either by their name or by numerical value:



by name:

=Func("Financial", "AccrInt",,,,,, "Quarterly", "Actual360",)

by numerical value:

=Func("Financial", "AccrInt",,,,,, 4, 2,)



Works on Windows 7 (beta):

Microsoft has recently released a public beta of Windows 7 (you can download it here) and we decided to test Excel4Net if it is going to work on Windows 7 or not.

To make a long story short - YES it works perfectly:





UI enhancements:



1. Insert Function window now conveniently positions itself next to the active cell (or range of cells) in the worksheet, providing a better user experience when adding a new function calls to the worksheet.

2. The function list now automatically adjusts its width to make sure that a long function names are not truncated and fully visible.

and as usual:

If you have a question, need some assistance to get started, have an idea or found a bug: please post your comment here - we will be happy to discuss and to help.

Thank you.

Excel4Net: First How-To Video!

I have put together a short (3 min) how-to video.

A video demonstrates how to use existing .NET code (Financial Functions for .NET by Luca Bolognese) with the Excel.

Enjoy!

p.s. if you have any comments or questions about this video - you can post it here.

Excel4Net: Support and Feedback

If you have a question, need some assistance to get started, have an idea or found a bug: please post your comment here - we will be happy to discuss and to help.

Excel4Net: deployment – part 1

In this post I am would like to compare deployment models of Managed Automation (COM) add-in and Excel4Net.

To do that – let’s implement a user defined function (UDF) - bond pricing function, using .NET:



With the Excel4Net all we need to do:
1. Copy the resulting assembly into the destination folder
2. Copy the spreadsheet to the destination folder

And after we invoke “Insert Function” dialog (just type =func() anywhere in the spreadsheet) we will see this function ready to be used:



if we spend extra 5 minutes amending the auto generated documentation, we could get something like this:



Press “OK” – that will insert bond price function call into the spreadsheet. This is it.

In case if we have decided to build Managed Automation (COM) add-in all we would have to:

1. Add ComVisible attribute to the class
2. Implement register and un-register functions to be able register and unregister add-in in the registry
3. Copy the resulting assembly to the destination folder
4. Register resulting assembly using regasm.exe
5. Update Excel.exe.config file to load specific version of .NET
6. Register the add-in in Excel (dozen of clicks in five different Excel windows)

After we invoke the “Insert Function” dialog, we will see our function:






Press “OK” – that will insert bond price function call into the spreadsheet.

Though both approaches yielded exactly the same result, what were different – the amount of time and effort spent.

If you want to try Excel4Net - please download a free fully functional beta here: www.excel4net.com/Download.aspx


p.s.

There are two good articles on how to create Managed Automaton Add-in and UDF using .NET:

Managed Automation Add-ins
Writing user defined functions for Excel in .NET

Introducing Excel4Net

Hello everyone and welcome to Excel4Net blog!

This blog was created to support our new product – Excel4Net 2.0 – a rapid application development kit for creating Excel applications using .NET framework.

In short: if you writing XLL’s in C++, managed (.NET) and unmanaged COM add-ins or using any other technology to extend your Excel spreadsheets – we hope you’ll find something interesting here.

Focus: Excel4Net is designed to suite Excel development needs of “market” professionals who work for investment banks, hedge funds: quantitative analysts, desk and trading floor developers. At the same time it might be interested to those (students?) thinking of getting into this lucrative industry.

Important: if you have existing .NET libraries – you can put them to use with Excel in 5 minutes (see how to do it here: www.excel4net.com/Documentation.aspx)

Even more important: fully functional beta version is available for download here: www.excel4net.com/Download.aspx (your feedback is welcome)

Key features:

*Easy to use
*Automatically marshals input and output data.
*Works with VBA and with in-cell functions
*Uses a simple deployment model
*Makes it easy to test and debug your spreadsheet and .NET code
*Have a built-in monitoring and performance profiling capabilities
*Supports users remotely
*Generates documentation for your code
*Runs on Excel 2002, 2003 and 2007, .NET 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5