xlsgen, native Excel generator

xlsgen 2.5 build #131 : Fix for preserving default conditional formats

Stéphane Rodriguez — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:31:46 GMT

Build 2.5.0.131 of xlsgen fixes a problem related to the preservation of default conditional formats when updating existing Excel 97-2003 spreadsheets.

xlsgen 2.5 build #130 : Fix for number formats

Stéphane Rodriguez — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:20:28 GMT

Build 2.5.0.130 of xlsgen fixes an issue when returning cells based on number formats. Namely, the issue was the thousand separator was included even in presence of character prefixes right next to thousands.

xlsgen 2.5 build #129 : Reading comments

Stéphane Rodriguez — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:55:30 GMT

Build 2.5.0.129 of xlsgen makes it possible to read existing comments in spreadsheets. Both Excel 97-2003 and Excel 2007 files are supported. The comments collection is exposed, and comments can be extracted by index and by location. Bonus : the source code generation tool also writes the corresponding source code in the programming language of your choice.

Here is an example, in C++ :

xlsgen::IXlsEnginePtr engine( __uuidof(xlsgen::CoXlsEngine) );

xlsgen::IXlsWorkbookPtr wbk = engine->Open( L"Book1_comments.xls", L"" );

xlsgen::IXlsWorksheetPtr wksht = wbk->WorksheetByIndex[1];

xlsgen::IXlsCommentsPtr comments = wksht->Comments;

// how many comments we have
int nbComments = comments->Count;

// extract by index
xlsgen::IXlsCommentPtr comment1 = comments->ItemByIndex[1];
_bstr_t label1 = comment1->Label;
int row1 = comment1->CommentRow;
int col1 = comment1->CommentColumn;

// extract by location
xlsgen::IXlsCommentPtr comment1bis = comments->ItemByLocation[3][6];

wbk->Close();

xlsgen 2.5 build #128 : Fix for multi-level outlines

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:00:18 GMT

Build 2.5.0.128 of xlsgen makes it easier to set multi-level outlines, horizontally or vertically.

The IXlsOutline interface, already available, sets the outline level, but leaves it up to the client application to compute the max outline level in case there is deeper nesting. With two new properties, namely :

AdditionalHorizontalOutlineLevel([in]enumOutlineLevel outline);
AdditionalVerticalOutlineLevel([in]enumOutlineLevel outline);

the programming interface is more additive.

The behavior of existing xlsgen code regarding outlines remains the same.

xlsgen 2.5 build #127 : Fix for default footer settings in print/preview/PDF

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:12:19 GMT

Build 2.5.0.127 of xlsgen improves how some footer options are rendered as part of print, preview and PDF generation.

xlsgen 2.5 build #126 : Chart extraction as PNG picture (II)

Stéphane Rodriguez — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:40:37 GMT

Build 2.5.0.126 improves the feature introduced in 2.5.0.124 by making sure that chartsheets are extracted with an appropriate picture size.

xlsgen 2.5 build #125 : Support for scaling in print/preview/PDF

Stéphane Rodriguez — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:23:07 GMT

Build 2.5.0.125 of xlsgen adds support for the scaling during print/preview and PDF generation. Scaling is set in the worksheet setup (worksheet.PageSetup.Scale) and can be used appropriately to scale down or up the contents of a sheet to print, preview or save as PDF.

So far, the scaling was stored/updated in the Excel files but ignored by xlsgen's printing facilities.

xlsgen 2.5 build #124 : Chart extraction as PNG picture

Stéphane Rodriguez — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:48:51 GMT

Build 2.5.0.124 of xlsgen makes it possible to extract the snapshot picture of a chart, as a PNG file. This feature is particularly useful in introspection scenarios or template composition.

xlsgen 2.5 build #123 : Improved reading of Excel 2007 charts

Stéphane Rodriguez — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:47:25 GMT

Build 2.5.0.123 of xlsgen improves how Excel 2007 charts are read and therefore exposed through the object model and print/preview/PDF.

xlsgen 2.5 build #122 : Fix for the ignore error flag in Excel 2007 files

Stéphane Rodriguez — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 13:53:14 GMT

Build 2.5.0.122 of xlsgen fixes an issue that is a small yet vocal breaking change in Excel 2007. In earlier versions, one could set or unset ignore error flags (such as a number stored as a string showing up with a a green marker in the top-left corner of the cell) in any worksheet of a file. But with Excel 2007, it is restricted to regular worksheets, otherwise it screams!
xlsgen makes sure to never write those flags to anything other than regular worksheets in Excel 2007 files.

xlsgen 2.5 build #121 : Fix for very large strings

Stéphane Rodriguez — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:15:54 GMT

Build 2.5.0.121 fixes a small issue with very large strings in Excel spreadsheets.

xlsgen 2.5 build #120 : Fix for scientific notation in number formats

Stéphane Rodriguez — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:39:16 GMT

Build 2.5.0.120 of xlsgen improves how numbers with scientific notations E+00 are handled by methods such as FormattedLabel() (this method returns the number with the cell format applied). This improves print/preview and PDF generation as well.

xlsgen 2.5 build #119 : Fix for row/cell formattings

Stéphane Rodriguez — Thu, 9 Oct 2008 22:22:55 GMT

Build 2.5.0.119 of xlsgen changes the way row and column formatting styles are stored in an Excel 97-2003 file. The order in which records are saved are important for Excel.

xlsgen 2.5 build #118 : Fix for the internal picture conversion

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 13:57:04 GMT

Build 2.5.0.118 of xlsgen fixes an issue with GIF and BMP pictures being inserted into a spreadsheet. Excel actually does not support GIF and BMP internally so it converts any such picture to another file format. xlsgen used to convert those pictures to EMF (i.e. Windows enhanced metafile), but it happens that sometimes EMF has side effects in regards to the metadata that are attached to it. So it has been decided to convert those pictures to PNG from now on, which fixes the problem.

A fine bonus is that PNG is internally compressed using ZIP meaning that Excel spreadsheets with GIF or BMP pictures will now be smaller than they used to be.

xlsgen 2.5 build #117 : Fix for the INDIRECT() function

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 13:52:15 GMT

Build 2.5.0.117 of xlsgen fixes a small issue with the INDIRECT() function which returned a value instead of a reference. The difference was noticeable in Excel itself when used in an object such as data validation.

xlsgen 2.5 build #116 : Fix for shape groups

Stéphane Rodriguez — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 14:59:22 GMT

Buils 2.5.0.116 fixes the way xlsgen enumerates shapes when these are part of shape groups.

xlsgen 2.5 build #115 : Fix for worksheet duplication

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 9 Sep 2008 11:18:28 GMT

Build 2.5.0.115 fixes two problems related to the duplication of worksheets. The charts collection (whose charts are duplicated) are now accessible. And some deeper worksheet settings are duplicated as well.

xlsgen 2.5 build #114 : Fix for worksheet names with special characters

Stéphane Rodriguez — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:18:16 GMT

Build 2.5.0.114 of xlsgen fixes a small issue when special characters are used in worksheet names.

xlsgen 2.5 build #113 : Improved printing/previewing/PDF of headers/footers (II)

Stéphane Rodriguez — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:58:08 GMT

Build 2.5.0.113 of xlsgen gets beyond the previous build and now repeats pictures and charts in areas of repeat rows and repeat columns.

xlsgen 2.5 build #112 : Improved printing/previewing/PDF of headers/footers

Stéphane Rodriguez — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:30:46 GMT

Build 2.5.0.112 of xlsgen improves how headers and footers are printed, previewed and exported as PDF.

Namely,
- better footer rendering
- better page numbering
- better streamlining of formatting tags