xlsgen > overview > Online spreadsheets

xlsgen ships with two online spreadsheets code samples. Online spreadsheets are, as the name suggests, a way to manipulate spreadsheets with just a web browser.

1. Spreadsheets you can create, open, edit and save
2. Spreadsheets you can view

Spreadsheets you can create, open, edit and save

Online spreadsheets is a code sample that integrates ASP.NET, web technologies and xlsgen. It can be found in the xlsgen install package, in subdirectory /samples/C#/ASP.NET 2.0 online spreadsheet. With this code sample, you can create, edit, calculate and save arbitrary spreadsheets with just a web browser.

If you are looking for a way to avoid typical desktop deployment problems, the online spreadsheets is a great solution. Of course, the code sample has limited features, it concentrates on cells themselves, it does not handle charts, pivot tables and so on. The online spreadsheet itself is just HTML, there is no Java applet, ActiveX control or Flash involved here.

The code sample is provided as is, and derives from a Codeproject article available here. (Credits to: Declan Bright)

Requirements

Requirements for running the code sample (users) :

• a web browser

Requirements for installing the code sample (admins) :

• ASP.NET 2.0 (the code samples uses the GridView control available in ASP.NET 2.0). ASP.NET 2.0 is part of .NET 2.0 (whose free redistribuable is available here).
• a computer with Microsoft web server IIS installed and configured to run ASP.NET 2.0 applications
• a web browser

Requirements for extending the code sample (developers) :

• ASP.NET 2.0 (the code samples uses the GridView control available in ASP.NET 2.0)
• a computer with Microsoft web server IIS installed and configured to run ASP.NET 2.0 applications, or Visual Studio (which includes a developer-only web server that can run ASP.NET 2.0 applications)
• a web browser
• A developer environment which can build ASP.NET 2.0 code, such as Visual Studio

Walkthrough

• Find the code sample in the xlsgen install : samples / C# / ASP.NET 2.0 online spreadsheet.
• Deploy the code sample just like you would deploy any ASP.NET application.
• Open up a web browser and navigate to the corresponding web site start page (of the form http://127.0.0.1/GridViewSpreadsheet.aspx).
• The home page displays a blank spreadsheet.
• Click on cell D2, enter a number : 2, and hit the return key
• Click on cell D3 and enter a number : 13.12, and hit the return key
• Click on cell D4 and enter a formula : =SUM(D2:D3), and hit the return key. Notice, as you hit the return key, the formula is evaluated and the result is displayed : 15.12
• Click on cell D2, replace number 2 by 5.34, and hit the return key. Notice how the sum gets also updated.
• Save the spreadsheet by clicking on the Save button in the toolbar above the spreadsheet.
• Provide a filepath, example C:\sample.xls, and click on Save & Close. The filepath is a filepath on the server machine, not on the user machine. Make sure the target folder is granted write permissions for that to work properly. In either case, a message displays if the save has succeeded.
• Click on the New spreadsheet button. This creates a new spreadsheet.
• Click on the Open button in the toolbar above the spreadsheet.
• Provide a fullpath such as C:\sample.xls in order to open an existing spreadsheet.
• Notice how the existing spreadsheet gets loaded and displayed.
• Click on cell D2, replace the number by 3.14. Notice how the sum changes again, which proves xlsgen is doing all the work behind the scene.
• Save the spreadsheet again.

Additional notes

It is possible to work with numbers (integers and doubles), dates and strings in cells.

By default, Excel 97-2003 spreadsheets are created/opened/saved. A line in the source code must be changed for the sample to be able to create Excel 2007 spreadsheets (i.e. whose internal file format is ZIP based).

By making trivial changes in the source code, you can increase the number of displayed rows and columns, change the spreadsheet theme among other things. You can even make substantial feature additions such as support for cell formattings, charts, ... (let ARsT Design know about it).

Spreadsheets you can view

This other code sample, which is written in C#, hosted as an ASP.NET solution, and easily portable to other server-side environment, makes it possible to view the content of the spreadsheet, including all the formattings (cells, conditional formattings, charts, ...) with just a web browser.

This code sample can be found in the C# subfolder of the samples folder, titled "ASP.NET 2.0 spreadsheet viewer".

When you run the code on a server, you get a blank page with an "Open document" icon. This icon lets you open whatever spreadsheet of your choice, and then it displays. The page is split in two parts : on the left is the table of contents including all tabs, and all pages inside each tabs ; on the right is the actual page. Note that the links on the table of contents makes it possible to navigate any page of any tab.