zigxll-standalone

A standalone Excel XLL add-in built with ZigXLL.

This is a template repository. Create your own repo from this template to get started quickly.

Cross-compilation setup

Although Excel XLL assemblies only run on Windows, on non-Windows platforms ZigXLL cross-compiles Windows XLL add-ins from macOS or Linux with the help of the most excellent xwin.

Windows: Skip this section.

macOS:

brew install xwin
xwin --accept-license splat --output ~/.xwin

Linux:

cargo install xwin
xwin --accept-license splat --output ~/.xwin

If Cargo isn't available, install Rust via rustup.rs or download a prebuilt binary from the xwin releases page.

See the ZigXLL README for more details.

Building the XLL

zig build

The XLL will be output to zig-out/lib/standalone.xll.

RTD Server

This XLL includes a Timer RTD server that ticks a counter every ~2 seconds.

ProgID	CLSID
standalone.timer	{B2C3D4E5-F6A7-8901-2345-6789ABCDEF01}

The RTD server is registered automatically when the XLL is loaded into Excel (writes to HKCU\Software\Classes, no admin needed).

Usage in Excel:

• Direct RTD call: =RTD("standalone.timer", , "tick")
• Wrapper function: =TIMER()

Adding more functions

Add your Excel functions to src/functions.zig using the function in that file as a guide.

Try out the pre-built XLL

1. Go to the Actions tab and click on the latest successful workflow run
2. Scroll down to the very bottom and download the zigxll-standalone artifact
3. Extract the XLL file from the zip to a safe location - desktop works
4. You will need to unblock it. More info: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/excel-is-blocking-untrusted-xll-add-ins-by-default-1e3752e2-1177-4444-a807-7b700266a6fb
5. Double-click standalone.xll to load it into Excel