Hello World with ExcelTemplate

ExcelWriter's ExcelTemplate approach allows you to write data to a template file that contains data markers. The data markers tell ExcelWriter where to bind specific sets of data. This tutorial will show you the basics on how to dynamically insert data into a worksheet using ExcelTemplate by taking custom text from a web form textbox and inserting it into a template file.

Setting up the template file

The template file for Hello World can be found under \templates\Hello World.xlsx.

We are going to bind a single string value to a cell in a template file. To do this, we will first need to add a data marker to the cell where we want the value to appear.

We've already added the single data marker '%%=$DataValue' to the Hello World.xlsx template file. All ExcelWriter data markers are prefaced with '%%=' and the additional '$' sign means that the data source for this data marker is 1-dimensional (e.g. 1-dimensional array or single value). 'DataValue' is the data marker ID we'll use to bind the data to this data marker.

SCREEN SHOT

Now the template file is done. Next is writing the code to bind the string value to the data marker.

Writing the code

This section refers to the code-behind for the ExcelTemplate Hello World sample: ExcelTemplate_HelloWorld.aspx.[cs/vb]. The corresponding web form is ExcelTemplate_HelloWorld.aspx.

1. Include the SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter namespace in the code behind.

2. Instantiate the ExcelTemplate object.

3. Open the template file.
The ExcelTemplate object corresponds to a single template file, so a given ExcelTemplate instance can only have one template file open.

4. Create a DataBindingProperties object

The DataBindingProperties object can be used to change the behavior of how data is imported. For example, if we were importing multiple rows of data, we can use the DataBindingProperties.MaxRows property to limit the number of rows that are imported. In this sample, we won't be changing any of the import properties, but we still need the DataBindingProperties object to bind data.

5. Get the data and call ExcelTemplate.BindCellData to bind the data to the data marker

In this sample, we're pulling the single value from the text box on the web form.
Since we're binding a single value, we use BindCellData() and specify the data marker ID. Note that we need to pass the DataBindingProperties object, even though none of the DataBindingProperties are active.

6. Call ExcelTemplate.Process() to insert the data into the file

ExcelTemplate.Process() handles everything relating to inserting the data into the file. If we were importing multiple rows of data, Process() would handle inserting the new physical rows into the Excel worksheet.

7. Save the output

There are several options for ExcelTemplate.Save including: save to disk, save to memory stream, stream back to the client inline, and stream back to the client as an attachment. In this case, we're streaming the workbook back to the client as an attachment.
Also, ExcelWriter does not convert between file formats, so it is important that the file extension on the output file matches the file extension of the original template file.

8. Go to the web form page, ExcelTemplate_HelloWorld.aspx, to try out the sample. In the output file, you will see that the data marker has been replaced with the custom text entered in the form.

SCREENSHOT

Congratulations, you have completed Hello World for ExcelTemplate!