Do note that we already have code in the contrib module under "SheetViewer" which displays in a swing app(lication/let) using a Jtable and custom renderer which obeys at least some of the excel formatting. It should be easy to extend (I wrote much of it in a day and then jason or shawn did the rest over the course of a week and then we all kinda lost interest, no customers ever used it). -- Andrew C. Oliver http://www.superlinksoftware.com/poi.jsp Custom enhancements and Commercial Implementation for Jakarta POI
http://jakarta.apache.org/poi For Java and Excel, Got POI? > From: Michael Zalewski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: "POI Users List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:59:34 -0400 > To: POI Users List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: RE: Silly question regarding POI-HSSF > > I think you are both making a lot of assumptions and over-simplifying. > > If the users used a Swing JTable, it would not look much like Excel, not > really. You would certainly not be able to do the intermediate and advanced > features offered by Excel, such as Data Validation, formatting, charting. > And users who are used to entering their data into an Excel spreadsheet will > likely resist having to install a Java application to do the same thing. > Even after the Java application was done, could you mail the data to your > colleagues for review and approval? Could you embed the table into a Word > document for publication? > > On the other hand, getting data from a spreadsheet into a database is going > to be non-trivial even with POI. How will you validate the columns? How do > you tell the user which data was invalid? How will you handle blank rows or > rows where the datatype is string and you are expecting a number. How will > you handle the possibility that a user uploads the same spreadsheet more > than once? What will you do if the user sends a non-Excel file - (BTW there > are dozens of bugs in Bugzilla where a *developer* tries to read a non-Excel > file with POI - POI spits out a message that looks like "Invalid header > signature; read 3546922463590896708, expected", and the developers insists > that he is using a real .xls file when in fact the file is .html, or a MIME > attachment, or something else. You do know that Excel can save a workbook as > .html, and the result looks very much like spreadsheet, and in fact you can > read that .html file back into Excel, likely without loosing anything in > formatting). > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Cobban [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 7:05 PM > To: POI Users List; Madhusudan Mathihalli > Subject: Re: Silly question regarding POI-HSSF > > If you want them to enter the data into the database why do you not simply > provide them with an Excel-like interface to the database? It is quite > trivial to present the contents of a JDBC query reply in a Swing JTable, and > then as the user modifies the values in the cells of the JTable, write those > changes back into the database. I haven't done this in SWT but it is > probably easier do do there, most things are. > > Alternatively, using POI-HSSF, it is fairly straightforward to read an Excel > spreadsheet and write the contents into an SQL database. I have also done > this, but it is more work than the direct GUI. The big advantage of this > approach is not having to deploy your Java app on all of the users > workstations. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Madhusudan Mathihalli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 1:50 PM > Subject: Silly question regarding POI-HSSF > > >> Hi, >> I just started reading about the POI-HSSF, and I've to admit that >> it's really a cool project. >> >> I had a pretty silly question regarding using POI-HSSF - please bear >> with me and if you've already answered such questions. >> >> Today, some of my collegues are share data via an Excel Spreadsheet. >> I'm trying to change this behaviour to saving the data in a database - >> however, since they're not used to filling data on a HTML page, >> there's been some problems in getting them to use the web interface. >> >> With POI, I think I can give them a Excel-style interface, excel-style >> editing capability and on the backend, parse the xls and save the data >> on the database. >> >> Question: >> - Do you see any problems in this ? >> - Do you already know of a similar implementation (if so, can you >> please give me some pointers) >> >> Thanks >> -Madhu >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
