Not able to output to .xlsm file successfully

[mbiermann]

Hello, not sure if this is in the right place to post this or not. I have a module that outputs several streams to different sheets in the same Excel .xlsm macro-enabled workbook. I am using the Block Until Done tool before each output stream. I have configured my outputs to use Microsoft Excel *.xlsx file format (no *.xlsm is available), using Overwrite Sheet (Drop) output option. Unfortunately I am still getting "Error: Output Data (570): Unable to open file for write: file.xlsm in use by another process" on most of the sheets when I write to an existing file.

So I did some tinkering and found that if I changed the output to a brand new file (i.e. let Alteryx create the .xlsm file when it runs, rather than write to an existing one) with the exact same settings as above, the file is created without errors, however when I try to open it I get an Excel error "Excel cannot open the file because the file format or file extension is not valid..."

Further tinkering reveals that if I change the actual output file to extension *.xlsx (i.e. not a macro-enabled workbook) all is fine. The workbook is created without errors and I can open it just fine.

It seems there is an issue with Alteryx outputting to .xlsm files? Is this the case? Can anyone confirm this or provide a workaround?

As a side note, if i use the Microsoft Excel Legacy *.xlsx file format I get a completly different error: "Error: Output Data (750): Error opening connect string: Microsoft Access Database Engine: Cannot update. Database or object is read-only.\3027 = -118490897" on each of the outputs.

I am using Alteryx 10.0.9.58949 on Windows 7 machine with 32 GB of Ram.

[KevinP · Accepted solution]

@mbiermann Unfortunately, .xlsm files are not currently a supported file format. For a list of supported file type please reference the help documentation at https://help.alteryx.com/current/DataSources/SupportedDataSources.htm. As a note development is working on adding xlsm support to a future release.

[mbiermann]

Thanks for your reply Kevin. This is unfortunate, as this feature would be a huge reason for us to use Alteryx in the first place. Hope to see it added very soon!

[ARich]

Hi @mbiermann,

We will be releasing read/write support for.xlsm files in the 10.5 release. Currently, the 10.5 release is scheduled for next week! So, it will be added very soon :)

Best,

Alex