I am using UiPath.Excel.Activities 3.4.1 latest version and i am using read cell workbook activity from it as i want to read/write cell value without opening it in background. When i am passing local filepath as input, its giving error as Read Cell Workbook: Picture names cannot contain any of the following characters: :/?*. Please help
Could you please share a snapshot of the file path you are using? This will help identify if there are any invalid characters or formatting issues.
Thanks
“C:\Users\AGARWALC\Documents\BOT_KZDDVXDP10-0364\S4 CR2P05 Poland\Apr13-Apr19\Poland\S4 CR2P05 Report Model.xlsm”
Yes file does contains images as sap screenshots
This is likely the issue, the images in the file may contain special characters.
Can you try using Excel Application Scope + Read Cell instead?
That gives RPC server unavailable most of the times
For this issue, you can try using retries, killing the Excel process, etc.
Otherwise, check if the data can be obtained in another format, such as CSV? Also, confirm whether the file can be cleaned manually.
Hey,
can you try Read cell activity with Excel application scope and update
The “Workbook” activities (which run in the background without needing Excel installed) use a library called OpenXML to read the underlying file structure. If your Excel file contains images, charts, or shapes where the internal metadata name has a special character (like a colon or slash), the activity crashes because it tries to validate every object in the file, even if you are only reading a text cell.
How to Fix It (follow any):
- Switch to “Read Cell” (Excel Process Scope)
- If want to use Workbook activity, if possible avoid to read that specific column having picture
- If possible, remove picture column from an excel
You can use VB code with an invoke code activity that allows you to read the desired cell.