ABAP_to_the_Future

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ABAP2XLSX
somebody from having to go through th is process manually each time. As you
might imagine, the whole purpose of ABAP2XLSX is to remove the need for this
sort of thing. However, that still leaves the other main purpose of macros, which
is to let the user navigate around complicated spreadsheets in the same way that
you can click icons within SAP and jump into related reports and transactions.
Realistically, the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming language used
inside Excel spreadsheets is powerful enough that the range of things the macros
might be doing is limitless. The inventor of ABAP2XLSX decided it would not be
a very good idea to replicate the VBA language inside of SAP and thus enable
direct creation of a spreadsheet with a macro in the same way that you can generate
a spreadsheet with formatting and colors and charts.
You still want your users to be able to use their macros, though; if they cannot,
they’ll burst into tears. Some of these macros are no doubt works of art, making
SAP programs seem simplistic by comparison. The approach to take using
ABAP2XLSX is as follows:
1. Create a blank spreadsheet that contains all the desired macros.
2. Upload this blank, macro-enabled spreadsheet into SAP via ABAP2XLSX.
3. Download the blank sheet into the SAP database, where it will serve as a template.
4. When the SAP report is run, upload this template from the database; it becomes
your Excel object.
5. Populate the Excel object with the report data, and start formatting it as per
usual, with fonts, print settings, and al the trimmings, and then save the result
to the local drive or email it out.
When the final consumer op ens the spreadsheet, he will find his macros magically
working and will therefore not burst into tears, unless they’re tears of joy.
The next sections will cover each of the preceding steps one at a time.
Creating the Blank, Macro-Enabled Worksheet
On my very first day at work at my organization, I was a student working during
the summer prior to my final year at university. I was given a really boring task to
do, which involved manipulating a spreadsheet so that the data would come out
in a format that could then be given to a room full of people, who would punch
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