Hi Railers, I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where placeholders have to be substituted with values from the database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux. Some solutions I''ve been thinking about: (I don''t know if anything of these points makes sense at all) 1.) Installing Excel using CXOffice/Wine where Rails starts a special xls file. This file itself somehow knows what to do ,opens the xlt, querys the db and writes the report. 2.) Installing Windows using VMWare(Player) where Rails interacts with a Ruby program on Windows using some sort of RPC. 3.) Same as above, but communicating directly with the user''s PC running a Win32 Ruby programm. 4.) Using OpenOffice. But afaik Ruby-OOo Bindings don''t seem to be ready for production. And additionally some users make heavy use of Excel functions that are likely to cause troubles in OOo. I''d really appreciate any hints on how to solve this scenario. Thanks a lot, Hubertus -- HIDEN - EDV mit System Ing. Hubertus Hiden Schwöbing 12 A-8670 Krieglach Tel: +43 3855 2358 +43 664 2209313 Mail: hubertus-5xQ4IkOJ+aHYtjvyW6yDsg@public.gmane.org URL: http://www.hiden.org
> -----Original Message----- > From: rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > [mailto:rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of > Hubertus Hiden > Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 11:49 AM > To: rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > Subject: [Rails] Which way to go ? > > > Hi Railers, > > I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After > playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move > my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is > how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports > in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where > placeholders have to be substituted with values from the > database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails > on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux.If you don''t care about formatting, Excel understands CSV files just fine. If want to generate .xls files (I''m not sure what .xlt is) you can use the spreadsheet package (on the RAA) if you don''t mind generating Excel files in Excel 95 format. Regards, Dan
maybe look into using OpenOffice and converting to excel? I haven''t ever done anything with OO, but my understanding is that it''s xml based.. and it saves excel... On Mon, 2005-11-07 at 13:36 -0600, Berger, Daniel wrote:> > -----Original Message----- > > From: rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > > [mailto:rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of > > Hubertus Hiden > > Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 11:49 AM > > To: rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > > Subject: [Rails] Which way to go ? > > > > > > Hi Railers, > > > > I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After > > playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move > > my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is > > how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports > > in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where > > placeholders have to be substituted with values from the > > database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails > > on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux. > > If you don''t care about formatting, Excel understands CSV files just > fine. If want to generate .xls files (I''m not sure what .xlt is) you > can use the spreadsheet package (on the RAA) if you don''t mind > generating Excel files in Excel 95 format. > > Regards, > > Dan > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>> >>I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After >>playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move >>my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is >>how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports >>in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where >>placeholders have to be substituted with values from the >>database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails >>on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux. >> >> > >If you don''t care about formatting, Excel understands CSV files just >fine. If want to generate .xls files (I''m not sure what .xlt is) you >can use the spreadsheet package (on the RAA) if you don''t mind >generating Excel files in Excel 95 format. > >Regards, > >Dan > >Looks like a _very_ useful pice of software. But in this case I need something different. Open an existing Excel file Navigate to a Worksheet Perform several find/replace operations Thanks, Hubertus
Hubertus, I''ve been looking for a ruby package that would let me read XLS spreadsheets for a project I''m working on right now but it doesn''t look like there is one. You can write XLS spreadsheets from scratch but you won''t be able to read one, modify the values programatically and the save the new version in Ruby. Sincerely, Adrian Madrid HyperX Inc. Mobile: 801.815.1870 Office: 801.566.0670 aemadrid-kSB444ljgzMmlAP/+Wk3EA@public.gmane.org www.hyperxmedia.com 9000 S. 45 W. Sandy, UT 84070 Hubertus Hiden wrote:>>> I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After >>> playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move >>> my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is >>> how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports >>> in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where >>> placeholders have to be substituted with values from the >>> database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails >>> on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux. >>> >>> >>> >> If you don''t care about formatting, Excel understands CSV files just >> fine. If want to generate .xls files (I''m not sure what .xlt is) you >> can use the spreadsheet package (on the RAA) if you don''t mind >> generating Excel files in Excel 95 format. >> >> Regards, >> >> Dan >> >> >> > Looks like a _very_ useful pice of software. But in this case I need > something different. > Open an existing Excel file > Navigate to a Worksheet > Perform several find/replace operations > > Thanks, > Hubertus > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > >_______________________________________________ Rails mailing list Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
hi hubertus! not a pure ruby solution, but in the past i''ve successfully used the apache jakarta poi library (java!) to read and write excel files. i guess it shouldn''t be too hard to write a small java app which uses those and then interface to that from ruby - if you''re comfortable in java, that is... here''s the link: http://jakarta.apache.org/poi/index.html cheers, greg On Nov 7, 2005, at 9:10 PM, Hubertus Hiden wrote:> >>> >>> I''ve been developing using Access/MySQL for years. After >>> playing around with Rails for a few weeks I''m ready to move >>> my first Access application to Rails. What I don''t know is >>> how to solve the fact that this app needs to generate reports >>> in Excel. The reports are simple *.xlt files where >>> placeholders have to be substituted with values from the >>> database. Ok, this would be quite easy to solve running Rails >>> on Win32 but I''d really prefer Linux. >>> >>> >> >> If you don''t care about formatting, Excel understands CSV files just >> fine. If want to generate .xls files (I''m not sure what .xlt is) you >> can use the spreadsheet package (on the RAA) if you don''t mind >> generating Excel files in Excel 95 format. >> >> Regards, >> >> Dan >> >> > Looks like a _very_ useful pice of software. But in this case I need > something different. > Open an existing Excel file > Navigate to a Worksheet > Perform several find/replace operations > > Thanks, > Hubertus > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
wow ! thanks a lot !!!!!!!! you made my day ! hubertus Greg Battig schrieb:> hi hubertus! > > not a pure ruby solution, but in the past i''ve successfully used the > apache jakarta poi library (java!) to read and write excel files. i > guess it shouldn''t be too hard to write a small java app which uses > those and then interface to that from ruby - if you''re comfortable in > java, that is... > > here''s the link: http://jakarta.apache.org/poi/index.html > > cheers, > greg >