Opening local file not possible while non synchronized SharePoint file is open in Excel

[Roang-zero1]

OS

Windows 10

Versions of xlwings, Excel and Python (e.g. 0.11.8, Office 365, Python 3.7)

• xlwings: 0.27.10
• Office 365
• Python 3.9

Describe your issue (incl. Traceback!)

When I want to open a local file, but a Excel workbook from a non synchronized SharePoint is opened the local file cannot be opened.
When the non synchronized workbook is closed, xlwings works as expected.

This is problematic as the organization I am working with does not allow these workbooks to be synchronized to my computer, but I need the data from there for my xlwings integrated wokbook.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 2077, in wsgi_app
    response = self.full_dispatch_request()
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1525, in full_dispatch_request
    rv = self.handle_user_exception(e)
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1523, in full_dispatch_request
    rv = self.dispatch_request()
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1509, in dispatch_request
    return self.ensure_sync(self.view_functions[rule.endpoint])(**req.view_args)
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\VersionControl\Zeiterfassung\web\views.py", line 87, in render_file
    workbook = xw.Book(workbook_path)
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\xlwings\main.py", line 823, in __init__
    wb.fullname.lower() == fullname
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\xlwings\main.py", line 1074, in fullname
    return self.impl.fullname
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\xlwings\_xlwindows.py", line 849, in fullname
    return fullname_url_to_local_path(
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\xlwings\utils.py", line 569, in fullname_url_to_local_path
    return search_local_sharepoint_path(
  File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\zeiterfassung-TMhrlkJT-py3.10\lib\site-packages\xlwings\utils.py", line 708, in search_local_sharepoint_path
    raise xlwings.XlwingsError(
xlwings.XlwingsError: Couldn't find your SharePoint file locally, see: xlwings.org/error

Include a minimal code sample to reproduce the issue (and attach a sample workbook if required!)

import xlwings as xw
from pathlib import Path

BASE_PATH = "C:\User\user\"
file_path = "book.xlsx"

workbook_path = Path(BASE_PATH, file_path)
print(os.fspath(workbook_path)) #C:\User\user\book.xlsx
workbook = xw.Book(workbook_path) #Error occurs here

[fzumstein]

Are you opening the "non-synced sharepoint file" from the SharePoint web page?

[Roang-zero1]

Yes I opened it from the web interface in my local Excel instance.

[fzumstein]

Would you be able to open it in the online version of Excel as a workaround? The only other workaround I can think of would be to have 2 local Excel instances and somehow achieve that xlwings is dealing with one and SharePoint dealing with the other one (I don't know how SharePoint picks the instance).

[Roang-zero1]

I can do that as a workaround, but I think this should still be addressed.

The reason I say this are two-fold:

1. There is no indication that the fact that a file from a SharePoint is open is interfering with the local file.
   In fact I had to edit the local xlwings library to see which file was responsible.
   There should be a notice that having any SharePoint file opened from a webpage will prevent xlwings from working.
   Either in the console or in the https://docs.xlwings.org/en/latest/onedrive_sharepoint.html documentation.
2. The file I try to open has a completely different name than the one that has been opened from the SharePoint.
   Wouldn't it be possible to ignore a unrelated file to the one I am opening when using the Book class to open a single file?
   This error only happens because at

   xlwings/xlwings/main.py

   Line 820 in bc68467

   for app in apps:

   we search the open apps, to compare the fullname. If we compared the name before hand we could see that the SharePoint opened file is irrelevant. Therefore we can skip the fulnname resolution and prevent the error.

Basically my question is as follows:
I understand that the app already has the book open, but why should a non-synced SharePoint opened book that has a different name than the one I am trying to open prevent me from doing so.

Alternatively I would prefer a setting to deactivate the sharepoint/onenote functionality as I do not plan to use it.

[Roang-zero1]

Please correct me if I am wrong (I only skimmed the code and am not familiar with the code base), but could something like this work:

Replace

xlwings/xlwings/main.py

Lines 820 to 826 in bc68467

	for app in apps:
	for wb in app.books:
	if (
	wb.fullname.lower() == fullname
	or wb.name.lower() == fullname
	):
	candidates.append((app, wb))

With

candidates = []
for app in apps:
    for wb in app.books:
        if wb.name.lower() == os.path.split(fullname)[1].lower() and (
            wb.fullname.lower() == fullname
            or wb.name.lower() == fullname
        ):
            candidates.append((app, wb))

[fzumstein]

yes, that's a neat trick! thanks!