[Download-List] Creating a true Excel file with Cedarville Download

[Rotman, David]

(For some reason, Chuck's note was discarded by the Mailman software...so
I'm resending it.)


From: IT-Chuck Smith <chuck.smth at redwoodcity.org>
To: "'Cedarville DOWNLOAD Users'" <download-list at cedarville.edu>
Cc:
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:29:09 -0700
Subject: RE: [Download-List] Creating a true Excel file with Cedarville
Download
**

A .NET programmer could write a program to pick up a csv file, parse it,
 and output an Excel file with the Office API for Excel.  It would not be a
big job.  I realize not all of you have access to a .NET programmer but
this is a way to get it done without a lot of effort.

 ------------------------------
*From:* download-list-bounces at cedarville.edu [mailto:
download-list-bounces at cedarville.edu] *On Behalf Of *Rotman, David
*Sent:* Thursday, August 29, 2013 1:16 PM
*To:* Cedarville DOWNLOAD Users
*Subject:* [Download-List] Creating a true Excel file with Cedarville
Download

 There have been several requests to be able to create Excel files natively
with Cedarville Download.  Here are some thoughts on adding that
functionality.  Feel free to comment on pros/cons of each.

1  Write code within Download to create the Excel file.  This would involve
creating various XML parts (with complicated assignment of data like text
strings going into a relationship file while other cell content goes into a
different file) and then zipping the result.  Developing the Excel-related
coding would take a long time to write and perfect...and then actually
creating the zip file would take some sort of system call.

2  Find some Excel-creating, open-source software that accepts calls from
Unibasic.  I've not been successful in finding this kind of software.

3  Provide a hook within Download to call a commercial product that creates
the Excel file.  (Would this call occur for each row of the spreadsheet?
 or after generating the entire spreadsheet?)

4  Provide a hook within Download to execute a "convert CSV to XLSX"
utility.  Utilities seem to be freely available in Perl and PHP.  Download
would create the CSV file (or, perhaps, a tab-delimited file), call the
conversion utility, and then delete the CSV file.

One of the potential issues is the use of memory.  Creating the entire
spreadsheet in memory for large data sets could be problematic.  Writing
out an intermediate file (option 4) or intermediate files (option 1) would
help address this concern.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions...




David Rotman, Ph.D.
Associate Vice President for Technology
Chief Information Officer
Cedarville University
251 N. Main Street
Cedarville, OH 45314
rotmand at cedarville.edu
voice 937-766-7905
fax 937-766-8819
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