Excel::Template(3pm)

💖 Excel::Template 💖

okay bestie, listen — this is Excel::Template(3pm), a Perl module from the User Contributed Perl Documentation collection, and it's literally about making Excel files from templates. let me walk you through it, no cap 🦋

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

first things first, you gotta make a template. it's an XML file that describes the layout of your spreadsheet. iconic behavior, honestly.

for example, test.xml:

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

now you write a lil 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');

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

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

slay 💅

---

🌸 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, because they require replication of logic that's already been done within HTML::Template. so basically: why redo the work when you can just vibe with what already exists? 💖

---

🔥 MOTIVATION 🔥

okay so here's the tea. the author does a lot of Perl/CGI for reporting purposes. in nearly every place they've been, they'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. they already had the data structure for the other templating modules, but they just didn't have an easy mechanism to get that data structure into an XLS file. tragic, right? not anymore bestie 😭✨

---

💜 USAGE 💜

🎀 new()

this creates a Excel::Template object. main character energy fr.

Parameters

• FILE / FILENAME — Excel::Template will parse the template in the given file or filehandle automatically. (you can also use the parse() method, described below.)

if you want to use the __DATA__ section, you can do so by passing

FILE => \*DATA

• RENDERER — the default rendering engine is Spreadsheet::WriteExcel. you may, if you choose, change that to another choice. the legal values are:
  • Excel::Template->RENDER_NML — this is the default of Spreadsheet::WriteExcel.
  • Excel::Template->RENDER_BIG — this attempts to load Spreadsheet::WriteExcel::Big.
  • Excel::Template->RENDER_XML — this attempts to load Spreadsheet::WriteExcelXML.
• USE_UNICODE — this will use Unicode::String to represent strings instead of Perl's internal string handling. you must already have Unicode::String installed on your system.

the USE_UNICODE parameter will be ignored if you are using Perl 5.8 or higher, as Perl's internal string handling is unicode-aware. periodt.

NOTE: certain older versions of OLE::Storage_Lite and mod_perl clash for some reason. upgrading to the latest version of OLE::Storage_Lite should fix the problem. 💀

Deprecated

• BIG_FILE — instead, use RENDERER => Excel::Template->RENDER_BIG. bestie, don't use the deprecated one, okay? 🫶

🌈 param()

this method is exactly like HTML::Template's param() method.

🦋 parse() / parse_xml()

this method actually parses the template file. it can either be called separately or through the new() call. it will die() if it runs into a situation it cannot handle. dramatic but fair.

if a filename is passed in (vs. a filehandle), the directory name will be passed in to XML::Parser as the Base parameter. this will allow for XML directives to work as expected. 💖

⭐ write_file()

create the Excel file and write it to the specified filename, if possible. (this is when the actual merging of the template and the parameters occurs.)

🍓 output()

it will act just like HTML::Template's output() method, returning the resultant file as a stream, usually for output to the web. (this is when the actual merging of the template and the parameters occurs.)

💅 register()

this allows you to register a class as handling a node. q.v. Excel::Template::Factory for more info.

---

👑 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. the mother of the group chat, if you will.
• 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. (bestie said "no bugs, only vibes" 🧚)

---

💖 SUPPORT 💖

this is production quality software, used in several production web applications. she's literally employed. 💅

---

🫶 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 — come hang out!

🌸 Robert Bohne <rbo@cpan.org>

• Swichting to Module::Install
• Add autofilter to worksheet

🌸 Robert Graff

• Finishing formats
• Fixing several bugs in worksheet naming

🌸 Jens Gassmann

• Add hide_gridlines to worksheet

---

⭐ TEST COVERAGE ⭐

the author uses Devel::Cover to test the coverage of the tests. every release, they intend to improve these numbers. we love a growth mindset. 💖

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. iykyk ✨

---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
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

---

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this was Excel::Template, documented for perl v5.34.0, last touched 2022-06-13. go make some spreadsheets, you absolute icon 👑✨