Gunn, William G wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: David Huynh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>> Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 01:28 PM
>> To: General List
>> Subject: Re: Excel, Exhibit, and Dates
>>
>> william gunn wrote:
>>     
>>> I'm having an issue with dates converting from Excel to 
>>>       
>> JSON for Exhibit.
>>     
>>> I'm converting from an Excel file, and the only way I can get the 
>>> dates to show up as dates and not numbers in Exhibit is by 
>>>       
>> using the 
>>     
>>> text() Excel function to make a new column converting the original 
>>> dates to text as shown
>>> here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1927710,00.asp, 
>>>       
>> then doing 
>>     
>>> "paste-special-values" into a new spreadsheet, omitting the 
>>>       
>> original 
>>     
>>> date columns.
>>>
>>> If I leave in the original columns, the dates show up as 0 
>>>       
>> in Exhibit, 
>>     
>>> and if I try to format the original columns using the format cells 
>>> menu option, the dates turn into numbers.
>>>
>>> I know David's been working on this, but I don't know if it's been 
>>> worked out yet.  It's not a big deal, really, but has 
>>>       
>> anyone figured 
>>     
>>> out a workaround that doesn't involve copying and pasting?
>>>   
>>>       
>> I haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet. I used some 
>> external .jar to access Excel files and I'll need to see how 
>> to retrieve dates properly.
>>     
>
> Thanks, David.
>  
>   
>>> On a related note, I'm converting my file on-the-fly, 
>>>       
>> because I don't 
>>     
>>> think it'll see too many pageloads, and it just seemed like 
>>>       
>> overkill 
>>     
>>> to check out babel for one little table, but does anyone have some 
>>> code to write the on the fly babel output to a file so that 
>>>       
>> the next 
>>     
>>> pageload could check for the existence of the converted 
>>>       
>> file and use that if present?
>>     
>>>   
>>>       
>> You could do this
>>
>>     <link href="your-file.xls"
>>        rel="exhibit/data"
>>        type="application/msexcel" />
>>
>> Given that your .xls file is publically accessible at a URL, 
>> that code will bounce the Excel file through 
>> http://simile.mit.edu/babel/ automatically.
>>     
>
> This is what I'm doing now, but I was thinking of some kind of convert
> on first load, creating a .js from the .xls, then using the .js on
> subsequent pageloads thing, because my application would involve
> deleting and re-uploading the .xls instead of editing it in place.
>   
I see... Well, each time you change your XLS file you have to manually 
redo the conversion through the web UI at http://simile.mit.edu/babel/ . 
Babel does not cache its output.

David
_______________________________________________
General mailing list
[email protected]
http://simile.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/general

Reply via email to