Table of Contents

Setting Up the Templates

In the downloadable ExcelWriter_Basic_Tutorials.zip, there are completed template files located in CompleteFinancialReport/templates.

Getting Started

This section covers using ExcelApplication to join two Worksheets into one Workbook. These two worksheets were created in Part 1 and Part 2 of this tutorial.

Adding an ExcelWriter Reference in Visual Studio

In the sample code, the reference to SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter.dll has already been added to the CompleteFinancialReport project.

Create a .NET project and add a reference to the ExcelWriter library.

Open Visual Studio and create a .NET project.
- The sample code uses a web application.
Add a reference to SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter.dll
- SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter.dll is located under Program Files > SoftArtisans > OfficeWriter > dotnet > bin

Writing the Code

Using Multiple Instances of ExcelTemplate

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

using SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter;

2. Globally declare the ExcelTemplate and ExcelApplication objects. We are also using a MemoryStream to pass the application object to the template object.

MemoryStream stream;
ExcelApplication XLA;
ExcelTemplate XLT;

The next step uses CopySheet to create a JoinReports method.

Joining Reports

1. Instantiate ExcelApplication

XLA = new ExcelApplication();

2. Open the workbook to copy into.

Workbook wbTo = XLA.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part1_Financial_Template.xlsx"));

3. Open the workbook to copy from.

Workbook wbFrom = XLA.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part2_Financial_Template.xlsx"));

4. Open the worksheets to copy from. These are the first sheet with a table, and the second sheet containing the data.

Worksheet wsFrom = wbFrom[0];
Worksheet wsFromData = wbFrom[1];

5. Call CopySheet for each worksheet. The data sheet needs to be copied first so that the references to it remain valid.

wbTo.Worksheets.CopySheet(wsFromData, 1, "Data");
wbTo.Worksheets.CopySheet(wsFrom, 1, "Percent by Quarter");

6. Instantiate the MemoryStream. ExcelTemplate opens ExcelApplication objects as streams

stream = new MemoryStream();

7. Finally save the joined file to a stream.

XLA.Save(wbTo, stream);

Data Binding

1. Create a method to bind and process the two templates. This method takes the filename and returns the processed template object

private void BindTemplateData()
{
}

4. In the BindTemplateData method, instantiate the ExcelTemplate object

XLT = new ExcelTemplate();

5. Open the template files with the ExcelTemplate.Open method. This opens the stream created in the JoinReports method

XLT.Open(stream);

6. Create a DataBindingProperties object. None of the binding properties will be changed for this tutorial, but DataBindingProperties is a required parameter in ExcelTemplate data binding methods.

DataBindingProperties dataProps = XLT.CreateDataBindingProperties();

7. Get the data for Assets, Losses, and Other.

In the sample project, we are parsing CSV files with query results, rather than querying a live database. The CSV files are available under the data directory. There is a copy of the CSV parser, GenericParsing.dll in the bin directory of the project GetCSVData is defined in Part1.aspx.cs in a region marked Utility Methods.

These calls are to a helper method GetCSVData that parses the CSV files and returns a DataTable with the values.

If you are following in your own project and would like to parse the CSV files as well, you will need to:

Add a reference to GenericParsing.dll
Include GeneringParsing at the top of your code.
Add the GetCSVData method that can be found in the sample code.

DataTable dtAssets = GetCSVData("//data//Assets.csv");
DataTable dtLosses = GetCSVData("//data//Losses.csv");
DataTable dtOther = GetCSVData("//data//Other.csv");

8. Create the datasets for the header row in template 1. This will simply be ignored by template 2.

//Create the array of header values. This example only binds a single item
string[] headerValues = { "2011" };

//Create the array of header names.
string[] headerNames = { "FiscalYear" };

9. Use ExcelTemplate.BindData to bind the data for the Top and Details Sales data sets.

XLT.BindData(dtAssets, "Assets", bindingProps);
XLT.BindData(dtLosses, "Losses", bindingProps);
XLT.BindData(dtOther, "Other", bindingProps);

10. Use the ExcelTemplate.BindRowData method to bind the header data to the data markers in the template file (i.e. %%=Header.FiscalYear).

XLT.BindRowData(headerValues, headerNames, "Header", bindingProps);

11. Call ExcelTemplate.Process() to import all data into the file.

XLT.Process();

Do not save the file. In the next step the XLT object will be post processed by ExcelApplication

Post-Processing

1. The file has to be post-processed with autofit. This is also the workbook that is being copied to. Instantiate the ExcelApplication object:

XLA = new ExcelApplication();

2. Open the populated template file with ExcelApplication. The file will open as a Workbook object.

Workbook wb = XLA.Open(XLT);

3. Access the first Worksheet.

Worksheet ws = wb.Worksheets[0];

4. Call Area.AutoFitHeight() and Area.AutoFitWidth() to set the column and row height. AutoFitWidth sets the column width to fit the widest populated cell in the column. AutoFitHeight sets the row height to highest populated cell in the row. In this snippet, the area is Worksheet.PopulatedCells, which returns an area containing all populated cells.

ws.PopulatedCells.AutoFitWidth();
ws.PopulatedCells.AutoFitWidth();

5. Finally, call ExcelApplication.Save to save the final file. This example streams the file using the page response.

XLA.Save(wb, Page.Response, "temp.xlsx", false);

Final Code

using SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.ExcelWriter;
...
//Declare globals
 MemoryStream stream;
 ExcelApplication XLA;
 ExcelTemplate XLT;

protected void RunReport()
{
          //Join the two reports using CopySheet
          JoinReports();

          //bind the data for the newly modified file
          BindTemplateData();

          //Finally postprocess to set the auto fit values
          PostprocessTemplate();
}

protected void BindTemplateData()
{
	XLT = new ExcelTemplate();

	//Open the template file
	XLT.Open(stream);

	//Create data binding properties for ExcelTemplate
	DataBindingProperties bindingProps = XLT.CreateDataBindingProperties(); 

	//Get the datatables to be bound into the template.
	//This example uses CSV data, but the data can come from
	//anywhere
	DataTable dtAssets = GetCSVData("//data//Assets.csv");
	DataTable dtLosses = GetCSVData("//data//Losses.csv");
	DataTable dtOther = GetCSVData("//data//Other.csv");

	//Bind the datatables
	XLT.BindData(dtAssets, "Assets", bindingProps);
	XLT.BindData(dtLosses, "Losses", bindingProps);
	XLT.BindData(dtOther, "Other", bindingProps);

	/*This section only applies to the first template. It will be ignored by the 
	second template, since there are no markers to bind to.*/

	//Create the array of header values. This example only binds a single item
	string[] headerValues = { "2011" };

	//Create the array of header names.
	string[] headerNames = { "FiscalYear" };

	//Bind the header row data
	XLT.BindRowData(headerValues, headerNames, "Header", bindingProps);

	//end

	//Process to import the data to the file
	XLT.Process();
}

protected void JoinReports()
{
	//Instantiate ExcelApplication
	XLA = new ExcelApplication();

	//Open the first template
	Workbook wbTo = XLA.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part1_Financial_Template.xlsx"));

	//Open the second template
	Workbook wbFrom = XLA.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part2_Financial_Template.xlsx"));

	//Open the first worksheet, with the table
	Worksheet wsFrom = wbFrom[0];
	//Open the second worksheet, with the data
	Worksheet wsFromData = wbFrom[1];

	//Call CopySheet, making sure to copy the data sheet first
	wbTo.Worksheets.CopySheet(wsFromData, 1, "Data");
	wbTo.Worksheets.CopySheet(wsFrom, 1, "Percent by Quarter");

	//Instantiate the stream to save to
        stream = new MemoryStream();

        //Save the stream
        XLA.Save(wbTo, stream);
}

protected void PostprocessTemplate()
{
         //Instantiate ExcelApplication
         XLA = new ExcelApplication();

         //Open the newly populated XLT
         Workbook wb = XLA.Open(XLT);

         //Get the first worksheet
         Worksheet ws = wb.Worksheets[0];

         //Set autofit for the width and height
         //This sets all cells to the highest or widest
         //value present in the area
         ws.PopulatedCells.AutoFitWidth();
         ws.PopulatedCells.AutoFitHeight();

         //Open the processed file in your browser
         XLA.Save(wb, Page.Response, "Part3_Output.xlsx", false);
}

Downloads

You can download the code for the Financial Report here.

ExcelWriter_Basic_Tutorials.zip