Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 91607
Link To External Data Fails On External CSV Data
Last modified: 2016-07-03 01:59:29 UTC
I try to link to the following external data, http://finance.google.com/finance/historical?q=NYSE:GIS&output=csv, using Insert - Link To External Data. The OK button never becomes enabled. I read through the entire disposition of http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1834, and this resolution, treating CSV data as an "IMPORT" is just not the correct way to handle this. Linking to External CSV data needs to work exactly as linking to HTML table data does. For example: Linking to the link below functions just fine: http://finance.aol.com/quotes/exelon-corporation/exc/nys/historical-prices?tf=y&gran=d By just fine, I mean I can link to it and update the data in my spreadsheet every day from the link. However, linking to the CSV data, again at the below link for example, doesn't function: http://finance.google.com/finance/historical?q=NYSE:GIS&output=csv I can only Import this into a new sheet. It's a one time deal. This needs to work like the HTML table link. I need to be able to link to this data and update the data in my spreadsheet from the link.
I have the same problem, what I want to access is a currency exchange rates that are made available by my bank as a csv file (http://www.brebank.pl/kursy/kurs-bre-current-csv). When I try to use "Link To External Data" and use URL above I do get an import window with a proper recognition of columns (after all it is csv), but when I click OK the button for adding the data source is still grayed out. "Solution" proposed by some to open files doesn't apply here - I'd have to manually download this csv every hour and re-open it in my spreadsheets which is purely idiotic. Please fix this!
Hi, what's wrong with Insert Sheet from file. Paste the URL into the file open dialog Click Ok tag the Link box and insert the file this way. If you want an update just go to Edit-Links an update it. You may place a button on your sheet to shorten the way it works, but this Issue here is a double to Issue 1834 and therefore closed as such. Frank *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 1834 ***
you may have to switch to the OpenOffice.org dialogs under tools options.
As replied in the 1834: To answer comment in issue #91607 - what's wrong with doing it via "Insert sheet from file..."? Everything is wrong with it: - it is illogical - no one would ever think of using it to connect to a clearly external resource, that is refreshed periodically just made available as a .csv not .html, - there is even no mention in the file dialog that you could even type URL-s there! It wouldn't have occurred to me, and I'm in IT since 1989. This is a crude workaround at best. I don't know why this resistance to making OO's UI smoother and working better by allowing all kinds of external resources to be properly inserted from their proper menu entry. Why don't make it easier for users?
Please, re-open this issue - it is not fixed! The fact that a crude workaround exists doesn't fix it.
Oh, and BTW - this method does not allow automatic refreshing of the data. Inserted file is downloaded and inserted once, no link appears in Edit->Links, no way to refresh it other than manually.
I agree that Insert Sheet from File... does not work well. I typically use sheets that have partial cells imported from external files, and other parts that are static, non-changing cells and formulas. When you update the sheet, it basically wipes out the entire sheet and imports the external one... It needs to function like Excel where just a range of cells are linked to the external data.