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Introduction
This part focuses on using ExcelApplication to create and populate a coversheet that includes user-supplied name, the current date, and a selected picture. It also includes data binding with ExcelTemplate.
Because this part of the tutorial demonstrates further capabilities of ExcelApplication, the code behind will be modified.
Writing the Code
Writing the code for the cover sheet comes in two parts. the first part uses ExcelApplication to create a coversheet; and the second part uses ExcelTemplate to bind the appropriate data to the data markers on the cover sheet.
Creating the coversheet with ExcelApplication
Scoping the coversheet
We want to create a cover sheet that looks like the following Excel worksheet:
Ultimately, the cells below the Table of Contents will be populated with hyperlinks to country sheets in the workbook. The logo will be selected from the front end. The "Report For :" field will correspond with the supplied name, and finally, the "Date Executed :" will correspond with today's date.
Executing the coversheet
1. Following the line {{wb.Worksheets0.Visibility = Worksheet.SheetVisibility.Hidden; }}, use the Worksheets.CreateWorksheet method to create a new worksheet called "Summary" at the beginning of the workbook:
2. Create a Worksheet object of the worksheet that was just created.
3. Hide the gridlines in the summary worksheet using Worksheet.ShowGridlines. By default, this property is set to true.
4. Create a GlobalStyle using the Workbook.CreateStyle() method. ExcelWriter uses three Styles: CellStyle. GlobalStyle, and NamedStyle. The GlobalStyles type is a Style that can be applied to cells and areas throughout the workbook.
newcode}}GlobalStyle underlined = wb.CreateStyle();{{newcode
5. Set the underlined GlobalStyle to Font.UnderlineStyle to Single. ExcelApplication allows for various underline types.
6. Create another GlobalStyle using the Workbook.CreateStyle() method called 'boldAndFont12'.
7. Use the Style.Font to set the style font to 'Bold' and 'Size to 12.
8. Use the Cell.Value method to set the value of cell A15 to the string "Date Executed :". Cell.Value must be a string.
Use the Cell.Value method again to set the value of cell A16 to the string "Report For :" and value of cell A18 to "Table of Contents".
9. Create another GlobalStyle called "dateForm" and use the NumberFormat.DateFormat method to create the desired date format.
10. Apply the styles to the various cells.
11. Iterate through the country sheet names using a for loop, excluding the "Summary" and hidden "SimpleTemplate" sheets.
Cells below the "Table of Contents" cell are given a Hyperlink formula to another sheet in the workbook. When hyperlinking to another page in a workbook, the formula must follow "=HYPERLINK(\"#DestinationSheet!DesitinationCell\", \"Text\")" and use the Cell.Formula method.
12. Finally, we want to insert a picture into the cover sheet. This requires creating an Anchor object using the Worksheet.CreateAnchor() method.
13. We then want to create a Picture object using Pictures.CreatePicture method where the string describing the name of the image is pulled from the utility method RBImage.SelectedItem.Value.
14. We want to set the dimensions of the Picture object using Picture.Height and Picture.Width.
15. Finally, we want select the first sheet in the workbook (the "Summary" sheet) to be first viewed when the document is opened.