On 5/16/10 11:11 AM, Adrian Klaver wrote: > On Sunday 16 May 2010 8:15:07 am John wrote: >> On Saturday 15 May 2010 11:57:18 pm Martinecz Miklós wrote: >>> Hi, >>> >>> >>> >>> (I forgot to create ref. line to my previous post, so I re-send it now :) >>> >>> >>> >>> Can Dabo export its content to MS Word, Excel and PFD? >>> >>> >>> >>> The aim is to enable the user to modify further the document created in >>> the Dabo program. >>> >>> It would be important that the exported file can be edited. >>> >>> For example: a data table exported from Dabo to Excel can be editable >>> like an Excel spreadsheet. >>> >>> >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Miklós Martinecz >> >> Dabo currently uses ReportLab to create reports - meaning exporting >> information to a PDF format. But in general PDF's are not editable. >> >> Getting data into a Word format has at least two ways (see below for the >> second). The first is using a windows com object. You need to install >> win32all (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/). >> >> Win32 provides an interface into programming Word and Excel. The actual >> programming is beyond this response. But if you search the web there are >> thousands of examples for many languages including python. If you are sure >> all the users of your app will be using windows - using com object might be >> the best solution with least trouble because of the available support. >> >> For myself I need/want a more general solution. So I looked for a more >> cross platform solution. For spreadsheets I have two solutions. "xlwt.py" >> (http://www.python-excel.org/) which will allow you to create spreadsheet >> (readable and editable by Excel). I'm currently using "xlwt.py" to write >> spreadsheets in my programs. >> >> The second, is creating spreadsheets using the openOffice interface >> (uno.py). It is very similar to the way windows com objects work. >> openOffice also can create Word Doc's in the same way. Both the >> spreadsheets and word doc's are readable and editable. >> >> openOffice can also be used as a server to assist with actual printing. It >> will do much more than just print for example you could access data create >> a spreadsheet and print it or email it all from the openOffice acting in >> server mode. I was able to all of the above but I was able to do the same >> with windows com objects too. >> >> So what am I saying? First there is no easy way around it - you will have >> to program it. And the learning curve is a little steep. But you should >> be able to master it over time. >> >> Johnf >> > > To add to there is also pyrtf to generate RTF files: > http://pyrtf.sourceforge.net/ > > Also one can export can use the Python csv module to export CSV files. > > One caveat the sentence below would seem to imply a bi-directional nature to > the > export and that would be difficult to do: > "For example: a data table exported from Dabo to Excel can be editable > like an Excel spreadsheet."
You can use the win32 api to use Excel automation to construct an editable and nicely-formatted spreadsheet. However: + Getting it back into Dabo would be difficult since the user can and will do whatever they want to the document so your program can't rely on conventions to parse the new document. + It would only work on Windows. I'd like to ask why you would want to let the user modify the data in something external to Dabo? Paul _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-users Searchable Archives: http://leafe.com/archives/search/dabo-users This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/[email protected]
