NAME¶

Excel::Template - Excel::Template

SYNOPSIS¶

First, make a template. This is an XML file, describing the layout of the spreadsheet.

For example, test.xml:

  <workbook>
      <worksheet name="tester">
          <cell text="$HOME" />
          <cell text="$PATH" />
      </worksheet>
  </workbook>

Now, create a small program to use it:

  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  use strict;
  use Excel::Template;
  # Create the Excel template
  my $template = Excel::Template->new(
      filename => 'test.xml',
  );
  # Add a few parameters
  $template->param(
      HOME => $ENV{HOME},
      PATH => $ENV{PATH},
  );
  $template->write_file('test.xls');

If everything worked, then you should have a spreadsheet called text.xls in your working directory that looks something like:

             A                B                C
    +----------------+----------------+----------------
  1 | /home/me       | /bin:/usr/bin  |
    +----------------+----------------+----------------
  2 |                |                |
    +----------------+----------------+----------------
  3 |                |                |

DESCRIPTION¶

This is a module used for templating Excel files. Its genesis came from the need to use the same datastructure as HTML::Template, but provide Excel files instead. The existing modules don't do the trick, as they require replication of logic that's already been done within HTML::Template.

MOTIVATION¶

I do a lot of Perl/CGI for reporting purposes. In nearly every place I've been, I've been asked for HTML, PDF, and Excel. HTML::Template provides the first, and PDF::Template does the second pretty well. But, generating Excel was the sticking point. I already had the data structure for the other templating modules, but I just didn't have an easy mechanism to get that data structure into an XLS file.

USAGE¶

SUPPORTED NODES¶

This is a partial list of nodes. See the other classes in this distro for more details on specific parameters and the like.

Every node can set the ROW and COL parameters. These are the actual ROW/COL values that the next CELL-type tag will write into.

• WORKBOOK

  This is the node representing the workbook. It is the parent for all other nodes.

• WORKSHEET

  This is the node representing a given worksheet.

• IF

  This node represents a conditional expression. Its children may or may not be rendered. It behaves just like HTML::Template's TMPL_IF.

• LOOP

  This node represents a loop. It behaves just like HTML::Template's TMPL_LOOP.

• ROW

  This node represents a row of data. This is the 1 in A1. There is no COLUMN node, as of yet.

• FORMAT

  This node varies the format for its children. All formatting options supported in Spreadsheet::WriteExcel are supported here. There are also a number of formatting shortcuts, such as BOLD and ITALIC.

• BACKREF

  This refers back to a cell previously named.

• CELL

  This is the actual cell in a spreadsheet.

• FORMULA

  This is a formula in a spreadsheet.

• RANGE

  This is a BACKREF for a number of identically-named cells.

• VAR

  This is a variable. It is generally used when the 'text' attribute isn't sufficient.

BUGS¶

None, that I know of.

SUPPORT¶

This is production quality software, used in several production web applications.

MAINTAINERS¶

    Jens Gassmann <jegade@cpan.org>
    Robert Bohne <rbo@cpan.org>
    Rob Kinyon <rkinyon@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTORS¶

There is a mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ExcelTemplate or exceltemplate@googlegroups.com

TEST COVERAGE¶

I use Devel::Cover to test the coverage of my tests. Every release, I intend to improve these numbers.

Excel::Template is also part of the CPAN Kwalitee initiative, being one of the top 100 non-core modules downloaded from CPAN. If you wish to help out, please feel free to contribute tests, patches, and/or suggestions.

  ---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
  File                           stmt   bran   cond    sub    pod   time  total
  ---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
  blib/lib/Excel/Template.pm     93.8   60.0   58.8  100.0  100.0   31.8   83.3
  ...ib/Excel/Template/Base.pm   94.4   50.0    n/a  100.0    0.0    4.4   80.0
  ...cel/Template/Container.pm  100.0   50.0   33.3  100.0    0.0    2.0   83.3
  ...emplate/Container/Bold.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.1   95.0
  .../Container/Conditional.pm   95.9   90.0   66.7  100.0    0.0    0.3   91.0
  ...plate/Container/Format.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    1.5   96.8
  ...plate/Container/Hidden.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...plate/Container/Italic.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...ainer/KeepLeadingZeros.pm  100.0  100.0    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   96.3
  ...plate/Container/Locked.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...emplate/Container/Loop.pm   96.8   50.0   50.0  100.0    0.0    0.1   82.7
  ...late/Container/Outline.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...Template/Container/Row.pm  100.0   75.0    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.1   90.6
  ...mplate/Container/Scope.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    n/a    0.0  100.0
  ...plate/Container/Shadow.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...te/Container/Strikeout.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.0
  ...ate/Container/Workbook.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    n/a    7.0  100.0
  ...te/Container/Worksheet.pm   95.5   87.5  100.0  100.0    0.0    1.1   90.2
  ...Excel/Template/Context.pm   98.0   80.0   75.0  100.0   73.3   17.0   90.7
  ...Excel/Template/Element.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    n/a    0.1  100.0
  ...mplate/Element/Backref.pm  100.0   50.0   33.3  100.0    0.0    0.1   87.1
  .../Template/Element/Cell.pm   97.9   75.0   80.0  100.0    0.0    5.6   88.6
  ...mplate/Element/Formula.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   94.1
  ...te/Element/FreezePanes.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   95.5
  ...Template/Element/Image.pm  100.0  100.0    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   94.3
  ...Template/Element/Range.pm  100.0   66.7    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.1   88.9
  ...l/Template/Element/Var.pm  100.0    n/a    n/a  100.0    0.0    0.0   94.1
  ...Excel/Template/Factory.pm  100.0   73.1   66.7  100.0  100.0   22.3   91.4
  .../Excel/Template/Format.pm   98.4   75.0   33.3  100.0   66.7    2.6   90.5
  ...xcel/Template/Iterator.pm   98.6   80.0   70.6  100.0   50.0    0.3   88.8
  ...el/Template/TextObject.pm   92.9   62.5   33.3  100.0    0.0    3.3   80.9
  Total                          97.8   74.7   64.6  100.0   35.7  100.0   89.4
  ---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------

COPYRIGHT¶

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

SEE ALSO¶

perl(1), HTML::Template, Spreadsheet::WriteExcel