Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE]
Thanks Don! This is quite nice -- and well documented! -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Don Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:15 PM To: 'U2 Users List' Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE] [AD] Completely free http://www.southeast-florida.com/ud/UD2EXCEL_CREATE_V2.zip Contains: - Perl Script to create XLS binary (97-2003) - Unidata Programs including a demo program - Limited Documentation Some features - Headers - Columns Headings - Sorting - SubTotaling and Outlining - Justification (Left / Right / Center) - Footers [/AD] This was written by me about 7 years. It's free, so please keep your comments about the horrible code to yourself. =) Additional Software need: PERL 5.8+ - PPM Module Spreadsheet::Write 2.20+ - PPM Module GetOpt::Long 2.3.7+ I will gladly answer questions offline at u2-usersrem...@thissoutheast-florida.com. Regards, Don Verhagen -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Tony Gravagno Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:15 PM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File Wil, while the OP asked about reading Excel on an iPhone, the title of the thread is Building an Excel File. That prompted suggestions for how to create Excel, including use CSV. Yes, all spreadsheet clients including Excel will open a CSV file. But that led to my assertion that CSV is not Excel and that CSV is not acceptable when people want Excel, though that is a common belief amongst MV developers because most end-users will just take what you give them ... and then they'll quietly start looking for people who will give them what they really want, Excel. This is a digression that you are welcome not to follow. About your statements - I'm intimately familiar with internals of Excel (Office in general), XML, CSV, and related document standards, and I have no idea what kind of middleware you're talking about below. CSV has no information about formatting, it's pure data. It's therefore impossible for any utility to do anything but autosize the columns, and that's trivial. As I said above, if all you're doing is opening the file, sure, that should work, but the result is hardly Excel outside of being text in columns and rows. You can't just simply 'change the Excel files into csv files'. Your statement doesn't survive the first attempt. Excel will warn you that it's going to lose detail if you do that. Again, CSV is not Excel. It doesn't provide borders, colors, images, cell references, merged cells, fonts, type styles, multiple sheets, named sheets, named ranges, file properties, page formatting, print pagination, fixed col/row settings, custom col/row sizes, or data typing. And while you can provide formulas in CSV, you'll lose them if you save Excel as CSV. [AD] And _that_ is the reason I created NebulaXLite, to allow programmers to do all of that from BASIC, on any OS, any DBMS, and with no underlying libraries. It's real workbooks for Excel, Open Office, and Google docs - when everyone else is ready to provide a delimited text file. T From: Wjhonson I think somewhere this jumped the track. No one is saying that CSV is Excel Rather the OP wanted a way to read an Excel file on the Iphone. Can the Iphone natively read Excel files? I know that it can natively read csv files, because we're doing it. It puts the csv file into a neat table with a border, with columns and rows all autosized and pretty with no effort whatsoever. So the solution could be simply to change the Excel files into csv files and voila you have no problem anymore for the Iphone. This doesn't address the issue of whether existing Excel files, or Excel files you receive from others can be handled. It only addresses the issue of reading Tables (of some kind) on the Iphone. ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD]
Sorry to come in a bit late here. I have worked through a couple of versions of NebulaXLite and must say I am very impressed, with both the astounding results and the thoughtful improvements Tony has made to this breakthrough tool. If you have a requirement to clone an existing spreadsheet, but with data from U2, you need to get this tool. It will pay for itself day one and spare you a lot of grunt work. On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Tony Gravagno 3xk547...@sneakemail.comwrote: [AD] NebulaXLite creates rich XML workbooks (multiple sheets) which can be opened by Google Docs and Open Office, in addition of course to Excel. The XML isn't Excel-specific, it conforms to open standards, and Excel happens to open those files as well. remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/products/xlite.htm When I got my Android, I didn't look for Excel for Android, I just viewed docs as Google spreadsheets. Your BlackBerry and iPhone users would probably do well to do the same. NebulaXLite is free for all developers and only a one-time $200 purchase price for end-users with completely free support. Many people here use NebulaXLite over Universe and Unidata, and I hope a few of our clients will comment on their experience. Some months ago I also announced NebulaXPlus which exports XLite documents to a local Windows box to convert to a real Excel ..xls file. This allows even more complex documents to be created - yes, without user intervention. NebulaXPlus is now in beta. Thanks for you time. Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog Visit http://PickWiki.com! Contribute! http://Twitter.com/TonyGravagno NEW! http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms/about From: Israel, John R. We are running UniData on a UNIX platform. We create tab-delimited txt files (and tab delimited txt files with xls extensions) all the time that users open with Excel. Many of these jobs are run in the middle of the night or in a trigger program. In all cases, there is no direct user interaction building these files. We also have some XML files that are coded so that Excel opens them with formatting, colors, filters, etc. Unfortunately, our BB users and iPhone users can not open these files up in a meaningful way. Is there a way to build a TRUE Excel file without any user intervention from UniData or UNIX? ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD]
Honestly -- back to my prior statement -- why is Rocket just not licensing the logic and shipping it like DataVu?? I suspect it would be used WAY more!! -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Ross Morrissey Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 3:16 PM To: U2 Users List Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD] Sorry to come in a bit late here. I have worked through a couple of versions of NebulaXLite and must say I am very impressed, with both the astounding results and the thoughtful improvements Tony has made to this breakthrough tool. If you have a requirement to clone an existing spreadsheet, but with data from U2, you need to get this tool. It will pay for itself day one and spare you a lot of grunt work. On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Tony Gravagno 3xk547...@sneakemail.comwrote: [AD] NebulaXLite creates rich XML workbooks (multiple sheets) which can be opened by Google Docs and Open Office, in addition of course to Excel. The XML isn't Excel-specific, it conforms to open standards, and Excel happens to open those files as well. remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/products/xlite.htm When I got my Android, I didn't look for Excel for Android, I just viewed docs as Google spreadsheets. Your BlackBerry and iPhone users would probably do well to do the same. NebulaXLite is free for all developers and only a one-time $200 purchase price for end-users with completely free support. Many people here use NebulaXLite over Universe and Unidata, and I hope a few of our clients will comment on their experience. Some months ago I also announced NebulaXPlus which exports XLite documents to a local Windows box to convert to a real Excel ..xls file. This allows even more complex documents to be created - yes, without user intervention. NebulaXPlus is now in beta. Thanks for you time. Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog Visit http://PickWiki.com! Contribute! http://Twitter.com/TonyGravagno NEW! http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms/about From: Israel, John R. We are running UniData on a UNIX platform. We create tab-delimited txt files (and tab delimited txt files with xls extensions) all the time that users open with Excel. Many of these jobs are run in the middle of the night or in a trigger program. In all cases, there is no direct user interaction building these files. We also have some XML files that are coded so that Excel opens them with formatting, colors, filters, etc. Unfortunately, our BB users and iPhone users can not open these files up in a meaningful way. Is there a way to build a TRUE Excel file without any user intervention from UniData or UNIX? ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE]
David W. and others, I also have a perl script that will parse a Excel worksheet from a workbook (Excel 97-2003) if anyone is interested. It returns back a Variable in SheetDatarow,col automatically converts dates/times from the excel number to the pick date time number. I haven't look at in years, because it was solid as a rock. =). As I'm sure Tony G also has a product. I (have) could turn this into a (.NET) webservice that could run on any IIS server that handles both .XLS and XLSX format, but that will cost ya (not too much). David, I should have told you about TU.FORM.OPENDOS [SAVEDOS], we used it in Outsmart forever but I'm old and I forgot. Don Verhagen -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of David Wolverton Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 10:39 AM To: 'U2 Users List' Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE] Thanks Don! This is quite nice -- and well documented! -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Don Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:15 PM To: 'U2 Users List' Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE] [AD] Completely free http://www.southeast-florida.com/ud/UD2EXCEL_CREATE_V2.zip Contains: - Perl Script to create XLS binary (97-2003) - Unidata Programs including a demo program - Limited Documentation Some features - Headers - Columns Headings - Sorting - SubTotaling and Outlining - Justification (Left / Right / Center) - Footers [/AD] This was written by me about 7 years. It's free, so please keep your comments about the horrible code to yourself. =) Additional Software need: PERL 5.8+ - PPM Module Spreadsheet::Write 2.20+ - PPM Module GetOpt::Long 2.3.7+ I will gladly answer questions offline at u2-usersrem...@thissoutheast-florida.com. Regards, Don Verhagen -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Tony Gravagno Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:15 PM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File Wil, while the OP asked about reading Excel on an iPhone, the title of the thread is Building an Excel File. That prompted suggestions for how to create Excel, including use CSV. Yes, all spreadsheet clients including Excel will open a CSV file. But that led to my assertion that CSV is not Excel and that CSV is not acceptable when people want Excel, though that is a common belief amongst MV developers because most end-users will just take what you give them ... and then they'll quietly start looking for people who will give them what they really want, Excel. This is a digression that you are welcome not to follow. About your statements - I'm intimately familiar with internals of Excel (Office in general), XML, CSV, and related document standards, and I have no idea what kind of middleware you're talking about below. CSV has no information about formatting, it's pure data. It's therefore impossible for any utility to do anything but autosize the columns, and that's trivial. As I said above, if all you're doing is opening the file, sure, that should work, but the result is hardly Excel outside of being text in columns and rows. You can't just simply 'change the Excel files into csv files'. Your statement doesn't survive the first attempt. Excel will warn you that it's going to lose detail if you do that. Again, CSV is not Excel. It doesn't provide borders, colors, images, cell references, merged cells, fonts, type styles, multiple sheets, named sheets, named ranges, file properties, page formatting, print pagination, fixed col/row settings, custom col/row sizes, or data typing. And while you can provide formulas in CSV, you'll lose them if you save Excel as CSV. [AD] And _that_ is the reason I created NebulaXLite, to allow programmers to do all of that from BASIC, on any OS, any DBMS, and with no underlying libraries. It's real workbooks for Excel, Open Office, and Google docs - when everyone else is ready to provide a delimited text file. T From: Wjhonson I think somewhere this jumped the track. No one is saying that CSV is Excel Rather the OP wanted a way to read an Excel file on the Iphone. Can the Iphone natively read Excel files? I know that it can natively read csv files, because we're doing it. It puts the csv file into a neat table with a border, with columns and rows all autosized and pretty with no effort whatsoever. So the solution could be simply to change the Excel files into csv files and voila you have no problem anymore for the Iphone. This doesn't address the issue of whether existing Excel files, or Excel files you receive from others can be handled. It only addresses the issue of reading Tables (of some kind) on the Iphone. ___ U2-Users mailing list U2
Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD-FREE]
[AD] Completely free http://www.southeast-florida.com/ud/UD2EXCEL_CREATE_V2.zip Contains: - Perl Script to create XLS binary (97-2003) - Unidata Programs including a demo program - Limited Documentation Some features - Headers - Columns Headings - Sorting - SubTotaling and Outlining - Justification (Left / Right / Center) - Footers [/AD] This was written by me about 7 years. It's free, so please keep your comments about the horrible code to yourself. =) Additional Software need: PERL 5.8+ - PPM Module Spreadsheet::Write 2.20+ - PPM Module GetOpt::Long 2.3.7+ I will gladly answer questions offline at u2-usersrem...@thissoutheast-florida.com. Regards, Don Verhagen -Original Message- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Tony Gravagno Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:15 PM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: Re: [U2] Building an Excel File Wil, while the OP asked about reading Excel on an iPhone, the title of the thread is Building an Excel File. That prompted suggestions for how to create Excel, including use CSV. Yes, all spreadsheet clients including Excel will open a CSV file. But that led to my assertion that CSV is not Excel and that CSV is not acceptable when people want Excel, though that is a common belief amongst MV developers because most end-users will just take what you give them ... and then they'll quietly start looking for people who will give them what they really want, Excel. This is a digression that you are welcome not to follow. About your statements - I'm intimately familiar with internals of Excel (Office in general), XML, CSV, and related document standards, and I have no idea what kind of middleware you're talking about below. CSV has no information about formatting, it's pure data. It's therefore impossible for any utility to do anything but autosize the columns, and that's trivial. As I said above, if all you're doing is opening the file, sure, that should work, but the result is hardly Excel outside of being text in columns and rows. You can't just simply 'change the Excel files into csv files'. Your statement doesn't survive the first attempt. Excel will warn you that it's going to lose detail if you do that. Again, CSV is not Excel. It doesn't provide borders, colors, images, cell references, merged cells, fonts, type styles, multiple sheets, named sheets, named ranges, file properties, page formatting, print pagination, fixed col/row settings, custom col/row sizes, or data typing. And while you can provide formulas in CSV, you'll lose them if you save Excel as CSV. [AD] And _that_ is the reason I created NebulaXLite, to allow programmers to do all of that from BASIC, on any OS, any DBMS, and with no underlying libraries. It's real workbooks for Excel, Open Office, and Google docs - when everyone else is ready to provide a delimited text file. T From: Wjhonson I think somewhere this jumped the track. No one is saying that CSV is Excel Rather the OP wanted a way to read an Excel file on the Iphone. Can the Iphone natively read Excel files? I know that it can natively read csv files, because we're doing it. It puts the csv file into a neat table with a border, with columns and rows all autosized and pretty with no effort whatsoever. So the solution could be simply to change the Excel files into csv files and voila you have no problem anymore for the Iphone. This doesn't address the issue of whether existing Excel files, or Excel files you receive from others can be handled. It only addresses the issue of reading Tables (of some kind) on the Iphone. ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
Re: [U2] Building an Excel File [AD]
[AD] NebulaXLite creates rich XML workbooks (multiple sheets) which can be opened by Google Docs and Open Office, in addition of course to Excel. The XML isn't Excel-specific, it conforms to open standards, and Excel happens to open those files as well. remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/products/xlite.htm When I got my Android, I didn't look for Excel for Android, I just viewed docs as Google spreadsheets. Your BlackBerry and iPhone users would probably do well to do the same. NebulaXLite is free for all developers and only a one-time $200 purchase price for end-users with completely free support. Many people here use NebulaXLite over Universe and Unidata, and I hope a few of our clients will comment on their experience. Some months ago I also announced NebulaXPlus which exports XLite documents to a local Windows box to convert to a real Excel ..xls file. This allows even more complex documents to be created - yes, without user intervention. NebulaXPlus is now in beta. Thanks for you time. Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog Visit http://PickWiki.com! Contribute! http://Twitter.com/TonyGravagno NEW! http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms/about From: Israel, John R. We are running UniData on a UNIX platform. We create tab-delimited txt files (and tab delimited txt files with xls extensions) all the time that users open with Excel. Many of these jobs are run in the middle of the night or in a trigger program. In all cases, there is no direct user interaction building these files. We also have some XML files that are coded so that Excel opens them with formatting, colors, filters, etc. Unfortunately, our BB users and iPhone users can not open these files up in a meaningful way. Is there a way to build a TRUE Excel file without any user intervention from UniData or UNIX? ___ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
