Topic: Excel date modified

[StuartTaylor]

Hi all,

I know this maybe a bug but I wanted to know if anyone is getting the same issue.  I will report it to the bug track as soon as my password gets reset (sorry I lost it).

I am having a problem where by if someone opens an excel file the date modified changes to the date it was opened even if they don't save.  I am aware of the IRM issue at microsofts KB but these files are not IRM protected.  

The problem only seems to occur when the person who opens it is different from the person who opened last.

so for example if bob opens an excel file that was last opened by bob on the 2/5/2004 when he closes the file with out saving the modified date will revert to 2/5/2004

However if alice then opens the same excel file the modified date will change to the date she opened it last even if shes closes the file with out saving.  

Thanks for any thoughts

Stuart.


*edit* Posted in Bugzilla as bug 3120

[StuartTaylor]

another update for anyone who might be interested.

In attempt to pin down where the problem is coming from I tried openoffice.org calc

it won't reproduce the error so it is almost certainly something to do with the way excel handles files.


If anyone has any ideas please suggest them my boss is riding me to get this fixed.

[Stefano]

it won't reproduce the error so it is almost certainly something to do with the way excel handles files.

as you said, it's an excel bug/feature..

if you must use excel, you have to accept this feature/bug or you can phone bill and ask him to fix it

openoffice works.. tell your boss you have a solution..

ciao

Stefano

[StuartTaylor]

you are probably right...

I was hoping someone might know a little something about excel and SME but I guess the place to as about excel is the MSDN forums.

cheers for the input

[Stefano]

you are probably right...

I was hoping someone might know a little something about excel and SME but I guess the place to as about excel is the MSDN forums.

cheers for the input

try this before:

create a shared folder on a windows pc/server e put there an excel file..

do some tests.. if the behaviour is the same... it's an excel problem

ciao

Stefano

[StuartTaylor]

It doesn't happen between windows xp boxes.  When you open an excel file it changes to the current time and date but when you close it with out saving the modified date changes back, no matter who opened it last.

[mercyh]

Hi,

Bob and Alice aren't using different versions of MS Office by chance?

[StuartTaylor]

No, they aren't even on a different windows xp box.  Not that it matters.

I have found by experimenting at home that I can't reproduce the error with a samba share on Ubuntu.  So I am thinking maybe there is a problem with the way SME configures Samba for you.

Unfortunatly my home Internet has been shutdown for a week so it is making testing between the two OS's slower then I would like.

[mercyh]

Stuart,

I can't reproduce your problem.

1st I tried it on my Novell Netware server. When opening the file and looking at properties from inside Excel it showed the modification date and time as the current date and time. When I close the file (without saving) and check properties by right clicking on the file name, the modified date and time are back at the original date and time.

I then copied the file to the SME7 server, checked the properties by right clicking the file and it looked just like on the Netware server. I then opened the file and it was the same as Netware with the modified date and time set to the current date and time. I then closed the file without saving changes and the date and time was set back to the original just as I would expect.

This excel file was created with office 2k by another user. I opened and closed it with office 2003 from a different workstation.

Royce

[StuartTaylor]

Now try and open that excel file on the sme share with a different sme user.  that should make the error happen.  

All my users are using office 2003 but i downloaded the 2007 trial and it does the same thing.

[StuartTaylor]

I updated my testsever to 7.2 and now this problem happens everytime and excel file is opened.

Were there any changes to samba in 7.2 from 7.1.3


*edit*

sorry the update process changed the ownership of the files from the original user to the admin user.

[StuartTaylor]

As small update.

I am pretty sure I have tracked this problem to an issue with the version of Samba that SME uses.  Is there a way to manually update SME's version of samba beyond 3.0.10-1.4E.12.2?

[StuartTaylor]

This problem is definitely fixed by updating to a more recent version of samba

I followed the instructions in this thread to get to samba 3.0.25b and the problem no longer presents.

Seems to be stable.

[raem]

Stuart

Did you ever  report this to bugzilla ?
It would be good if you did as that will be the only way the issue is likely to get fixed in the base distribution.

edit Sorry I see you did post an earlier bug # 3120 which was closed as invalid.
Perhaps you could reopen it and post your later findings re upgrading to new samba version.