Using DDE Linking In Calc Newer Than v.3.3.1?

[PaulK]

Hello,

I have a spreadsheet that uses many DDE links to get data from another spreadsheet file. This setup also uses cell names instead of the more common row,column target. It works fine in version 3.3.1, but does not work in versions 3.5.7.2, 3.6.4.3 and 4.0.1.2. I get the error:

“The following DDE source could not be updated possibly because the source document was not open. Please launch the source document and try again.”

I then opened the source and still get the error message. I am wondering if DDE has been replaced and if so, am wondering how I can convert my DDE spreadsheet with cell name setup without manually rebuilding?

Thank you…
Paul

[PaulK]

Anyone? …

[oweng]

This appears to be a problem with local name ranges when used in the DDE() function For example, given a source file a.ods, Sheet1, cell B1 contains the integer 123 and has been given a local name range of int_local. A DDE function link using the local name range in file b.ods is defined as:

=DDE("soffice";"/home/oweng/doc/a.ods";"sheet1#int_local")

This produces this XML in b.ods:

<table:table-cell table:formula="of:=DDE("soffice";"/home/oweng/doc/a.ods";"sheet1#int_local")" office:value-type="float" office:value="0"><text:p>#N/A</text:p></table:table-cell>

…and the error message as indicated in the question (for each such link). Neither a direct cell reference or global name range has this problem. Bug fdo#64131 has been raised and I have confirmed it, but given the age of the problem as indicated here, there could well be an earlier bug. I will perform a search and report back my findings.

EDIT: Bug fdo#36311 may be the same issue. I have updated fdo#64131 with a link to this earlier bug. It is worth noting the comments in the earlier bug about a preference to replace the DDE facility with the Insert > Link to External Data… feature for a variety of reasons, not the least of which appears to be cross-platform support.