Accidentally Removed MySQL For Excel Add-in?

Did you accidentally removed MySQL Excel Add-in for Excel? Are you trying to re-add it but getting errors? In this blog, I try to list some solutions regarding the re-installation of mysql-for-excel-1.3.8. The version of my Windows is 10 and I’m using Microsoft Office 365 16.0.

When you try to reinstall the Add-in, it might not be displayed in the Data tab of your Excel because it’s not properly installed.

Executing MySQL for Excel VSTO File

You can try running the VSTO file in Program Files (x86)/MySQL/MySQL For Excel 1.3.8/MySQL.ForExcel.vsto. It might add the Add-in with no problem. However, you might get the error below.

Name: MySQL.ForExcel
From: file:///C:/Program Files (x86)/MySQL/MySQL For Excel 1.3.8/MySQL.ForExcel.vsto

************** Exception Text **************
System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException: Downloading file:///C:/Program Files (x86)/MySQL/MySQL For Excel 1.3.8/MySQL.ForExcel.dll.config did not succeed. —> System.Net.WebException: Could not find file ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL For Excel 1.3.8\MySQL.ForExcel.dll.config’. —> System.Net.WebException: Could not find file ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL For Excel 1.3.8\MySQL.ForExcel.dll.config’. —> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL For Excel 1.3.8\MySQL.ForExcel.dll.config’.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
at System.Net.FileWebStream..ctor(FileWebRequest request, String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare sharing, Int32 length, Boolean async)
at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.GetResponseCallback(Object state)
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Net.FileWebRequest.GetResponse()
at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Deployment.ClickOnceAddInDeploymentManager.DownloadAddIn(TimeSpan timeout)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Deployment.ClickOnceAddInDeploymentManager.InstallAddIn()

 

Re-Adding or Re-Installing MySQL For Excel

Please follow the steps below to reinstall the Add-in,

1. Uninstall MySQL For Excel through Control Panel
2. Open Registry Editor
3. Search for “MySQL.ForExcel” and delete any record that you find for MySQL for Excel
4. Restart your computer
5. Try to reinstall MySQL for Excel Add-in
6. Open your Excel and hopefully you find MySQL for Excel in your Data tab

 

Small businesses can win competition by collaboration.

Many small businesses are creative, efficient and provide flexible solutions. However, they feel weak in competition with larger businesses. They do not have as much funding as larger corporations for branding and marketing. Or do not have enough resources to grow their business.

What are the potential solutions to help small businesses to gain strength in competition?

I work for a Custom Web Application Development company who is pursuing collaboration as a winning tool. Each small business has strengths that covers the weakness of other small businesses.

For example, we are helping a junk removal company in promoting their business. They are good in removing construction junk and we are good in tech such as website development, and digital marketing. This company does not have enough funding and resources to compete with larger junk removal companies. But with the power of collaboration, more opportunities will be available to win. We both benefit from this collaboration.

We encourage small businesses to collaborate together and create opportunities for each other. We can’t compete with larger companies without helping each other.

But how if our small business turns to a larger company. Would we forget our values in empowering small businesses?

Challenges of Using Slack in Our Team

In this blog, I share our experience of using Slack and explain the difficulties and challenges we faced.

Not Friendly with OneDrive

Our team includes Excel & Macro Developers and we are constantly working with Microsoft Office and Excel. We use OneDrive for cloud storage because it’s friendly with Microsoft Office. However, Slack and OneDrive aren’t friendly with each other!

To share a OneDrive file on Slack, we need to manually copy the link of the file and paste it into Slack. However, sharing a file from Google Drive and Dropbox is much easier. With a few click of a buttons, Google drive or Dropbox files can get uploaded and shared into Slack as shown in the image below

We are not sure why sharing OneDrive files is not as easy as sharing Google Drive files. But we know this is a huge turn off and disadvantage for us.

Message Threads Weakness

Slack has introduced message threads recently; however, it doesn’t seem a well integration. The thread is shown as a sidebar not in the main chat area like the image below. It feels like messages are kept separately instead of integrated.

On the other hand, a slack competitor like Microsoft Teams has a good user experience while messaging. All replies to a thread are listed below it in one place not on the sidebar. We prefer this style of Microsoft Teams (like the image below) more than Slack’s style.

Lack of Supporting Right To Left Languages

Our web application development team is multi-cultural! Members speak different languages which might involve right to left writing. Our web programmers tend to communicate in details and obviously they are more comfortable talking in their mother language. Therefore, we need to provide support for their language. Other slack competitors like Microsoft Teams and Google Hangout Chat supports right to left writing but Slack has no support for it.

We contacted Slack, asking whether any time soon they will support RTL languages and they replied they have no plan for it at the moment.

With no RTL support, some of our members face challenges and it’s a huge disadvantage for us.

But a Good Side of Slack

We should admit that Slack has a better pricing at least compared to Microsoft Teams. That’s a reason why we still thinking about Slack. However, Google Hangout Chat which will be released soon, might have good pricing. At the moment, we are trying Google Hangout Chat thru Google Early Adapter Program.

 

How to apply for Google Early Adapter Program (EAP) to Try New Google Hangout Chat

In this blog, I share our experience in applying for EAP on Google Cloud and how we solve it. We are Excel & Macro developers and would like to try out the new Google Hangout Chat & Meet. The Hangout chat right now is only accessible thru EAP .

We have a G Suite account and I’m already an admin. I followed the instruction and logged into https://www.cloudconnect.goog/community/customers. I took a screenshot of the page which is,

As it says, Early Adapter is for customer only. I’m already have a G Suite subscription and I’m admin. If you don’t have a subscription, you might not be able to apply for this program.

Once I clicked Early Adapter, I redirected to a page with an error, “but it looks like you don’t have access to this place or content. If you think you should have access to this space, try logging out and back in again …”. I tried to logout many times but no help.

I contacted Google Cloud Support Center. You can find its link at the footer on https://www.cloudconnect.goog/community/customers. Please keep in mind, if you applied recently in G suite, it might take 24 hours for your Google Cloud Support Center to get activated.

A couple of days after, they replied and with a couple of back and forth emails, I found out that we need either cumulatively billed for at least USD 30, or pay 30 USD upfront as a credit on our account.

I loaded my account with $30 however they told me changes on our account will take effect within 24-48 hours.