Re: Excel by XML generation

True it is less flexible than using a PHP/Python/Java/whatever library - but most people don't need the ultimate flexibility that a library offers. The template can already include all of the formulas etc. that the user wants. In the past I have had the target user build the spreadsheet they want and then automated it for them.

On Dec 15, 2020, at 4:37 PM, John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 4:25 PM Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There was a discussion on (I think) the RPG list a whole back on this topic - for some reason Vern comes to mind as a participant. Haven't got time to look it up I'm afraid but somebody was doing it.

Definitely Vern. Possibly others.

Basically the approach is to generate a template spreadsheet, mark up the underlying XML where needed with placeholders, use templating system (in the past I've used CGIDEV2 for this) to modify the template and then zip the xml files up again.

Sounds less flexible to me than a full-blown Excel-writing library,
but if your needs can be served by it, I would think it's a very
(machine-)efficient approach.

John Y.
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