<div dir="ltr">(For some reason, Chuck's note was discarded by the Mailman software...so I'm resending it.)<div><br clear="all"><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">From: IT-Chuck Smith <<a href="mailto:chuck.smth@redwoodcity.org">chuck.smth@redwoodcity.org</a>><br>
To: "'Cedarville DOWNLOAD Users'" <<a href="mailto:download-list@cedarville.edu">download-list@cedarville.edu</a>><br>Cc: <br>Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:29:09 -0700<br>Subject: RE: [Download-List] Creating a true Excel file with Cedarville Download<br>
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<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><br></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" align="left"><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial">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.</font></span></div><br>
<div dir="ltr" lang="en-us" align="left">
<hr>
<font face="Tahoma"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:download-list-bounces@cedarville.edu" target="_blank">download-list-bounces@cedarville.edu</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:download-list-bounces@cedarville.edu" target="_blank">download-list-bounces@cedarville.edu</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Rotman,
David<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 29, 2013 1:16 PM<br><b>To:</b> Cedarville
DOWNLOAD Users<br><b>Subject:</b> [Download-List] Creating a true Excel file
with Cedarville Download<br></font><br></div>
<div></div>
<div dir="ltr">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.
<div><br></div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2 Find some Excel-creating, open-source software that accepts calls
from Unibasic. I've not been successful in finding this kind of
software.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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?) </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I look forward to hearing your suggestions...</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
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<div><br clear="all">
<div>David Rotman, Ph.D.<br>Associate Vice President for Technology<br>Chief
Information Officer<br>Cedarville University<br>251 N. Main
Street<br>Cedarville, OH 45314<br><a href="mailto:rotmand@cedarville.edu" target="_blank">rotmand@cedarville.edu</a><br>voice <a href="tel:937-766-7905" value="+19377667905" target="_blank">937-766-7905</a><br>fax
<a href="tel:937-766-8819" value="+19377668819" target="_blank">937-766-8819</a>
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