Creating Microsoft Excel files using XML

[ace]

Hi everyone this my first time posting so please forgive me if this questions seems dumb. I am trying to create an XML document using Progress 9.1D07 running on a H/P Server running H/P Unix 11.0. I need to be able to format the cells and protect the cell and create multiple tabs in the excel file. This file will then be emailed to our customers or employees. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[joey.jeremiah]

office 2003 xml schemas documentations, i found the docs very easy to follow.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FE118952-3547-420A-A412-00A2662442D9&displaylang=en


you can use smtpmail.p ( 4gl proc ) to send the file as an attachment.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=8388


you might also want to look into pdf and gordon campbell's pdfinclude,

openxml and opendocument standards. hth

 

[joey.jeremiah]

hey guys, that reminds me

i'm thinking of writing a file search and replace 4gl proc, especially for mail merges under unix.


let me explain -

1. first you'd create a template, in office, lets say a word doc.
2. next id the values you'd like to insert, for example, &Form-CustName.
3. then save the doc in xml.

that's it for the template.


now for inserting the values, using the file search and replace proc -

1. proc param - single prefix, search and replace lists, for example, "&Form-", "CustName", "Progress Software"
2. the proc process the file in increments of let's say 1k.
3. searches the buffer for the prefix, if found process search and replace lists

the implementation is abit messier, but that's the general idea.


i think it'll be more efficient and simpler then sax, dom and activex approaches, though activex isn't even an option on unix.

has anyone done something similar, any advice, opinions ? thanks, more to come ...

 

[joey.jeremiah]

I got some time to write it, so here you guys.


sarls.p search and replaces lists of strings in a source file and into a target file.

The source isn't long and has some comments to walk you thru the process ( I'm getting better working with comment, but it'll take some time ).

Also comes with a simple example that inserts values into a word xml doc.

Hey, this office xml stuff is pretty useful, I'm thinking about writing a display util that lets you define the frames in word, or something like that.


Please try it out as always feel free to post, copy the source etc.

Does anybody know a good place to post source code ?


btw, I haven't had time to thoroughly check it but I think it's alright.