VBA-Build

For a demo on how to use this GitHub Action: VBA-Build-Demo

How does it work?

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:

• Install 7-Zip for handling file compression
• Install Office 365 (via Chocolatey) to provide the Office applications needed
• Create Office file from XML source:
  • Find the XML source files representing your Office document structure
  • Compress them into a zip file using 7-Zip
  • Rename the zip file with the appropriate Office extension (e.g., .xlsm)
• Import the VBA components:
  • Enable the Visual Basic Object Model (VBOM) and general macro permissions in the registry of the Windows GitHub Worker
  • Opens the Office file and imports all modules (.bas), Forms (.frm) and Class Modules (.cls) from your source directory
• Run tests:
  • If a testing framework was specified, install the required dependencies
  • Run the tests and output the results to the console
• Generate final output:
  • Save the final document with embedded VBA code
  • Upload the resulting documents as build artifacts

Supported File Formats

• Excel (.xlsm, .xlam and .xlsb)
• Word (.docm)
• PowerPoint (.pptm, .ppam)

Why?

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

What's next?

Depending on the reaction of the community, I might add support for:

• Template formats .xltm, .dotm and .potm
• Signature of the VBA Project (to facilitate distribution)
• More complex file structure using vba-block configuration file (manifest file)
• Microsoft Access file formats