Has anyone used Office 2007 (or earlier?) Open XML File Formats?

[John Kotuby]

Hi all...

While looking around for tools to create Excel files from either HTML pages
or the Data I use to assemble them, I got an interesting response from a
vendor. I have looked at Apose, and may end up using their product. I am
also looking at the capability of SQL Server 2005 reporting services to
produce multi-worksheet workbooks.

However, a vendor that does HTML to PDF conversion asked me why I have not
used Office Open XML File Formats. He sent me a link
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205.aspx
which gave me 17 pages of overview but no real examples of this technology
applied to ASP.NET.

The "more information" link at the bottom of th page sent me back to the
Microsoft Office Developer Center which looked more like a sales page and I
got lost there. Frustrating.

So, can anyone point me to some code examples of this technology in action
to produce Excel from my website? I seem to learn best by code examples.

With the brain overload I am currently experiencing working with 5
technologies relatively new to me (I have been a mere VB6- SQL 2000
programmer for 6 years) the quick fix tools look mighty good...however...

I appreciate any help in directing me to a "useful" resource for the Open
XML File formats.

TIA

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Have a look at these 2 articles from MSDN magazine about creating .docx
files with dotNET (think the examples are in VB as well!)...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/11/BasicInstincts/

and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/02/OfficeSpace/


HTH,

Dan

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Have a look at these 2 articles from MSDN magazine about creating .docx
files with dotNET (think the examples are in VB as well!)...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/11/BasicInstincts/

and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/02/OfficeSpace/


HTH,

Dan

 

[sloan]

I've done some of this.

Basically, because you write out xml to a standard/schema, you can produce
excel sheets without interop or com or the excel object library.
Sweet!

You can build your own, or buy from a vendor.

My needs were simple. I always had a DataView ( columns and row) and I
threw them into excel.

I think when I was doing it (2005), you could not do any imbedded objects or
graphs. Not sure (but I'd guess so) if that's still the case.

...

But basically, people wanted a "report" they could throw/email around,
instead of directing them to a URL and saying
"Put these parameters in, and click GO and you'll see the data".

Its good for a historical report also. (As in, I need to know what the data
was on May 1st, 2007....and keep a history of that).

............

Mark Rae will chime in (maybe) and tell you (because MS tells you) the the
object library on a webserver is a bad idea.

 

[Mark Rae]

So, can anyone point me to some code examples of this technology in action
to produce Excel from my website? I seem to learn best by code examples.

This is probably the best place to start:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905545.aspx

Office OpenXML is most definitely not for the faint-hearted, especially when
compared to Aspose...

It is, however, free...

 

[John Kotuby]

Thanks Dan (musodev),

I appreciate the leads. Was too busy digging ditches today (programming) to
get back to you earlier.

 

[John Kotuby]

Thanks Mark and Sloan...

I always appreciate the help from seasoned vets...
Mark when a guy like you keeps saying "Office OpenXML is most definitely not
for the faint-hearted", I think in this case maybe I will be better spending
the money. After all time is money (valuable) and I haven't spent enough of
it fishing or playing with the wife .. if she hasn't left me yet ;-)

 

[sloan]

//playing with the wife .. if she hasn't left me yet ;-)//

Yep.


And its not trivial stuff. Like I said, I did one, I don't think any of
that third party stuff was around back then.

I didn't even have a schema. I saved an basic excel file "as xml", and just
recreated my code to match.

If you have the funds, then pick another route than rolling your own.

 

[Mark Rae]

I always appreciate the help from seasoned vets...
Mark when a guy like you keeps saying "Office OpenXML is most definitely
not for the faint-hearted", I think in this case maybe I will be better
spending the money. After all time is money (valuable) and I haven't spent
enough of it fishing or playing with the wife .. if she hasn't left me yet
;-)

Yes indeed...

Aspose is (relatively) expensive, but so is my time...

With Aspose, you really do just drop it into your \bin folder and start
coding...

What would take about an hour with Aspose, might easily take up to a week
with Office OpenXML unless I'd done virtually the same thing before and
could re-use most of the code...

Don't get me wrong - Office OpenXML is *extremely* powerful, and you *will*
be able to do everything you need with it...

Eventually... ;-)

 

[Mark Rae]

And its not trivial stuff. Like I said, I did one, I don't think any of
that third party stuff was around back then.

I didn't even have a schema. I saved an basic excel file "as xml", and
just
recreated my code to match.

Quite. I recall doing a similar thing with RTF a few years ago - mocked up a
document in WordPad, saved it as RTF, and then spent a few days figuring out
what it all meant...

If you have the funds, then pick another route than rolling your own.

I couldn't agree more!

I'm a big fan of 3rd-party .NET assemblies - full respect to the developers
whose skill I'm paying for, and who are saving me so much time...

Current favourites are:

http://www.chilkatsoft.com/downloads.asp
http://www.siberix.com/

It's been quite a while since I did a commercial project which didn't use at
least one of those...

Not forgetting Aspose, of course, though not every piece of work I do
requires Office integration...