For a demo on how to use this GitHub Action: VBA-Build-Demo
This GitHub Action automates the process of building VBA-Enabled Office documents from XML and VBA source code:
The main script is contained in Main.ps1 and will perform the following actions:
- Installs 7-Zip for handling file compression
- Installs Office 365 (via Chocolatey) to provide the Office applications needed
- Zip File Creation:
- Takes XML source files from your Office document structure
- Compresses them into a ZIP file using 7-Zip
- Renames the ZIP file with the appropriate Office extension (e.g., .xlsm)
- VBA Integration:
- Ensures no Office applications are running that could interfere
- Enables the Visual Basic Object Model (VBOM) in the registry of the Windows GitHub Worker
- Opens the Office file and imports all VBA modules (.bas files) from your source directory
- Output:
- Saves the final document with embedded VBA code
- Places the resulting file in your repository (Note that you'll need to commit that file or create a build artifact to preserve it)
I mean, why not? Every other programming language has something like this to build and package your code.
This could be used to:
- Keep your VBA code in plain text format for version control
- Automate builds as part of your CI/CD pipeline
- Generate ready-to-use Office documents without manual intervention
Depending on the reaction of the community, I might add support for:
- Access, Word and PowerPoint
- Signature of the VBA Project (to facilitate distribution)
- Forms and Classes
- More complex file structure using vba-block configuration file (manifest file)