How do I execute my vbscript in PHP

You cannot run applications on the client computer at all for security reasons: if you could do that then anyone could, including the spammers, phishers, and malicious members of society - and the problem of ransomware would be much, much more prevalent for example.

It appears to work in dev because your web server and client are the same computer - so your server runs the script and you seem to see it working on the client because it's the same computer instead of a 1000Km away ...

As stated above, you cannot run a client side app (vbscript) with a server side app (php). An alternative approach is to use a server-side scripting language like Python or Node.js, which have libraries and modules specifically designed for working with Excel files. If I undertsand this correctly, your excel file will reside on the server, no hosting company will allow you to install office apps on their server.

I have done a small client/server example for you that will work as expected, you will however need to add a lot of security checks and validations in place for obvious reasons (do not use ChatGPT code as you did in your question) as it will never return teh expected results as you have experienced just now, you will probably need to read up more on the code as well regarding Javascript, Node and proper PHP executions -

Firstly, you will need to use a library that can interact with Excel files in Node which is node-xlsx, so install it. More on node-xlsx - Learn | node-xlsx
[^] -

npm install node-xlsx

Create a new JavaScript file which will run the script, I have called mine 'transposeExcel.js'. This file needs to be accessible by PHP so make sure your file structure allows this with proper named paths - PHP dirname[^]

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const XLSX = require('node-xlsx');

//Change the path to your actual folder name when on a server...
const folderPath = 'C:\\xampp\\htdocs\\HTML\\SSProcess\\ExcelFiles';
const outputFolderPath = 'C:\\xampp\\htdocs\\HTML\\SSProcess\\Extracted_FullSheet';

fs.readdir(folderPath, (err, files) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('Error reading directory:', err);
    return;
  }

  files.forEach(file => {
    const filePath = path.join(folderPath, file);
    const fileExtension = path.extname(file).toLowerCase();

    if (fileExtension === '.xlsx') {
      const workbook = XLSX.readFile(filePath);
      const sheetNames = workbook.SheetNames;

      //Find the sheet with the name containing "R" and having the highest numeric value...
      let maxNumber = -1;
      let sheetName = '';

      sheetNames.forEach(name => {
        const positionOfR = name.indexOf('R');
        if (positionOfR > 0) {
          const numericPart = name.substring(positionOfR + 1);
          if (isNumeric(numericPart)) {
            const currentNumber = parseInt(numericPart, 10);
            if (currentNumber > maxNumber) {
              maxNumber = currentNumber;
              sheetName = name;
            }
          }
        }
      });

      if (sheetName !== '') {
        const worksheet = workbook.Sheets[sheetName];
        const range = XLSX.utils.decode_range(worksheet['!ref']);

        //Limit the range to columns A to L...
        const limitedRange = {
          s: { r: range.s.r, c: 0 },
          e: { r: range.e.r, c: 11 }
        };

        //Create a new worksheet for the transposed data...
        const transposedWorksheet = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([]);

        //Process the identified range...
        for (let row = limitedRange.s.r; row <= limitedRange.e.r; row++) {
          for (let col = limitedRange.s.c; col <= limitedRange.e.c; col++) {
            const cell = worksheet[XLSX.utils.encode_cell({ r: row, c: col })];
            const mergeCells = XLSX.utils.decode_range(cell.r);

            if (mergeCells) {
              const mergedCell = worksheet[XLSX.utils.encode_cell(mergeCells.s)];
              XLSX.utils.sheet_add_aoa(transposedWorksheet, [[mergedCell.v]], { origin: { r: col, c: row } });
            } else {
              XLSX.utils.sheet_add_aoa(transposedWorksheet, [[cell.v]], { origin: { r: col, c: row } });
            }
          }
        }

        //Now add the transposed worksheet to your workbook...
        XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(workbook, transposedWorksheet, 'Transposed');

        //Save your modified workbook...
        const outputFileName = path.join(outputFolderPath, file);
        XLSX.writeFile(workbook, outputFileName);
      } else {
        console.log(`No valid data range found in the file: ${file}`);
      }
    }
  });
});

function isNumeric(value) {
  return !isNaN(value) && isFinite(value);
}

To run the Node.js script in your PHP page, you'll need to execute the Node.js script using the 'exec()' function in PHP - PHP exec() function[^]

Security is key here... -

<?php
//Path to the Node.js executable, make sure you have the correct path set...
$nodePath = '/usr/bin/node';

//Path to the transposeExcel.js script...
$scriptPath = '/path/to/transposeExcel.js';

//Validate and sanitize ALL input paths...
$nodePath = filter_var($nodePath, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$scriptPath = filter_var($scriptPath, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

//Check if the paths are set and valid...
if (empty($nodePath) || empty($scriptPath)) {
    echo 'Invalid paths provided.';
    exit;
}

//Check if the files exist and are executable...
if (!file_exists($nodePath) || !is_executable($nodePath)) {
    echo 'Node.js executable not found or not executable.';
    exit;
}

if (!file_exists($scriptPath) || !is_readable($scriptPath)) {
    echo 'Node.js script not found or not readable.';
    exit;
}

//Escape any user input or dynamic parts of the command...
$escapedScriptPath = escapeshellarg($scriptPath);

//Execute the Node.js script...
$command = $nodePath . ' ' . $escapedScriptPath;
$output = [];
$returnValue = 0;

exec($command, $output, $returnValue);

if ($returnValue !== 0) {
    echo 'Error executing Node.js script. Return value: ' . $returnValue . PHP_EOL;
    echo 'Output: ' . implode(PHP_EOL, $output);
} else {
    echo 'Node.js script executed successfully.';
}

I have not tested the code so you might get some minor errors to sort out but this will put you on the correct path.