Xlsread/xlswrite error: unable to find the specified .xlsx file using a deployed web app

Hi all,

I have compiled a web app which reads and writes .xlsx file on the machine that is running the procedure. However, when run from the web, program throws the exception saying that the specified xlsx file is not present. I don't have the same issue when running the app directly from the code (not through the compiled app).

Thank you in advance

[Giulio Francesca]

I tried also spreadsheetDatastore function, but I receive same error: the file specified does not exists

Answer 1

[Kojiro Saito]

It is because WebApps creates a work folder when accessed by a user. For example, my WebApps on Windows has created the following temporary folder, C:\Users\MATLABWebAppsGuest\AppData\Local\MathWorks\webapps\services\mdwas\sessions\6f6d3719-a001-4112-9ad5-aae1bba9736f and this is a current folder of WebApps. These temporary folders are different by accesses. You can confirm where is current folder by

pwd

on WebApps.

I think there are two options.

1. Specifying full path of the Excel sheet instead of relative path. For example,

readtable(fullfile('C:', 'full', 'path', 'to', 'your.xlsx'))

2. If your Excel file is constant, i.e, reading the same Excel file, you can add the file to WebApps when compiling by adding "Files required for your app to run".

I hope this helps.

[Giulio Francesca]

Thank you very much for your answer. I'll check the location of web app working directory. So, if I understand well, I should locate the xlsx files into that folder to allow my web app to read them. Is it so?

[Giulio Francesca]

I'm already using a full file path which points to a network file \\sharedFolder\...\.xlsx

I also load a .mat file from the same directory which doesn't give me any problem

[Kojiro Saito]

Could you tell me the command for reading your Excel file?

[Giulio Francesca]

xlsread(filepath\filename.xlsx)

I tried with spreadsheet datastore and it seems to work properly... it's like xlsread cannot be used in compiled web app