KemeTech Writes 'API' for Accessing Excel Data from iSeries Apps

Published: January 24, 2006

by Alex Woodie

iSeries shops looking for a way to automatically capture data from Excel spreadsheets and import it into their RPG and COBOL applications should check out KemeTech Systems, which just delivered this capability through a new addition to its ConversionSuite offering, called the ConversionSuite Application Program Interface (API).

With the ConversionSuite API, iSeries programmers writing in any high-level language can access Excel 97, 2000, 2003 spreadsheet cell contents, as well as field information held in Dbase versions III, IV, and V. Users can also access metadata contained in the spreadsheets, including title, author, creation date, file size, modification date, and custom properties in Excel, and the number of records, file size, last update, record size, and field information in Dbase. KemeTech includes example programs with source code, as well as demonstration spreadsheets with the product.

ConversionSuite API, which costs $950, is the fourth member of KemeTech's ConversionSuite. Other products developed by the Newark, New Jersey, company include: the ConversionSuite CVTDBF (Convert Database File) module, which enables bi-directional exchange of OS/400 database files to Dbase database files and Excel spreadsheets, and costs $650; the ConversionSuite CVTSPLF module, which converts OS/400 spooled files to Excel spreadsheets, and costs $850; and ConversionSuite CVTPCF (Convert Personal Computer File) module, which provides OS/400 commands for converting Dbase and Excel spreadsheets to OS/400 database files, and which costs $750.