Launch Excel from the Web
 

Hello-- This question relates to problems when launching Excel from a
link on a web page.

SCENARIO: I have an Excel workbook with some pretty involved VBA code.
The code creates a budgeting and reporting application against an OLAP
database. A new requirement has come up to make this workbook available
to around 300 users. To send the workbook to these users individually
would become a nightmare in maintenance and support. So, I have put the
file on a shared drive. Now, the powers that be want the workbook
launched from a link on a web page.

Here are my issues:

1) The code was not originally designed to run through a browser, so I
plan to have the link open the Excel application. Is there a way to
have the workbook opened from a link without it asking the user to
"Open" or "Save" the file? (I've heard of maybe playing with the MIME
type on the link??)

2) Originally the workbook was an Excel Add-in (.XLA), so it never
asked to enable/disable macros. Now (because of the way new
requirements are setup), I need to have a "main menu" (my first sheet)
with some buttons. Therefore it prompts to enable/disable. I have
thought about writing some type of LAUNCHER in VB6 which opens the
workbook, and compile as .EXE-- and have the link call the launcher.
Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

3) I have a menu that is created during Workbook_Open(). Problem is,
that during testing of the link (after opening Excel application and
then the Workbook), every thing is working fine except when I choose
something from the menu-- it trys to reopen the workbook from the
server. I'm not sure why this is happening. This does not happen if I
launch Excel and the workbook outside of the browser.

4) Any helpful links on deploying Excel or Excel on the Web??

Thanks for your help!