#!perl -w
use strict;
use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 2; # Always warn with verbose error messages

# Open a new excel app, thus not stepping on anyones toes.
my $Excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit')
    or die "Unable to start Excel";

# Set Application Visibility 
# 0 = Not Visible    1 = Visible
$Excel->{Visible} = 0;

my $file = 'c:\test.txt'; # I tested with a TSV file.
die "'$file' not found" unless -e $file;

my $new_file = $file;
$new_file =~ s/txt$/xls/i;
if( -e $new_file )
{
    my $n = 4;
    while( --$n )
    {
        print STDERR "Deleting '$new_file' in $n seconds \r";
        sleep 1;
    }
    warn "Deleting '$new_file'                \n";
    unlink $new_file;
}

my $Book = $Excel->Workbooks->Open($file); # Open the book.
# And save it in the prefered format.
$Book->SaveAs( {
            FileName => $new_file,
            FileFormat => xlNormal,   # To save as TSV use xlText
            CreateBackup => 0} );
                
$Book->Close(0);
$Excel->Quit();
[download]

He's running a cgi script from the server. So unless he's running PerlScript enabled in the browser he won't be able to do OLE.

Excel (98 at least) has the ability of reading HTML files consisting of a <table> and reading all of that data into native Excel cells. It can also take a simple ASCII tab-delimited file and read it in as if it were a native file format. Neither of these options requires any explicit "import" commands. You may be able to simply send either of these file types to Excel by changing its MIME type (not sure what to change it to.. application/vnd.ms-excel or something) and likely its document extension (IE likes to ignore MIME types sometimes).

I know this doesn't completely address your question, but it is an alternative that might be easier to implement.

Gary Blackburn
Trained Killer

As of the time of this writing, this is the link for The Perl Journal article on Spreadsheet::WriteExcel.

HTH,

planetscape

Of course it may show up as plain text in the browser unless the user has the mime-type set up. You could alternately send the content as a MIME-encoded email, with:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: application/msexcel; name="yourFile.xls"; boundary=42
[download]

$rnd = int(rand 10000);
sub data_into_form ($_)
{
    $ntuples = $query->rows;
    $nfields = $query->{NUM_OF_FIELDS};
    
    

###############
#original table
###################
@data_in_form;
    
    @data_in_form = "<table 
      width=$tablewidth
      bgcolor=$editcolor 
      border=$table_border 
      cellspacing=$cell_spacing
      cellpadding=$cell_padding>\n\t<TR>\n";

    #push(@data_in_form, "<TD>&nbsp;</TD>\n") if ($quick_edit);
    push(@data_in_form,"<A href=\"http://oracle/$rnd.xls\">View Result
+s In Excel</a>");
    for($fc=1;$fc !=$nfields; $fc++)
    {
       $fname = $query->{NAME}->[$fc];
       push(@data_in_form,"\t\t<TD><CENTER><FONT SIZE=$font><B>
       <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME=\"order_by\" VALUE=\"$fname\"></B>
       </FONT></CENTER></TD>\n");
    }

    push(@data_in_form,"\t</TR>\n");

    while (@nrow = $query->fetchrow) {
      #push(@data_in_form,"\t<TR>\n");
      $first = 0;
        foreach $tuple (@nrow) {
        if ($first == 0) {
          #push(@data_in_form,"\t<TD><CENTER>
            #<A href=\"edit.cgi?action=edit&db=$db&oid=$tuple\">edit</
+a>") if ($quick_edit);
          push (@data_in_form, " |
            <A href=\"edit.cgi?action=delete&db=$db&oid=$tuple\">delet
+e</a>") if ($quick_delete);
          push(@data_in_form,"</CENTER></TD>\n");
          $first = 1;
        } else {
           $tuple=~s/ *$//g;
           push(@data_in_form,"\t\t<TD><FONT
               SIZE=$font>$tuple&nbsp;</FONT></TD>\n");
        }
      }
      push(@data_in_form,"\t</TR>\n");
    }
    push(@data_in_form,"</Table>\n");
 push(@data_in_form,"<A href=\"http://oracle/$rnd.xls\">View Results I
+n Excel</a>"); ##add link on the html table 
#######
#end original
##########

###############
#create excel file
####################
   my $workbook = Spreadsheet::WriteExcel->new("/u/httpd/html/$rnd.xls
+");
       $worksheet1   = $workbook->addworksheet(sheet1);
       $formatgen      = $workbook->addformat();
       $formathead     = $workbook->addformat();
       $formatgen->set_bold(0);
       $formatgen->set_color('black');
       $formatgen->set_align('center');
       $formatgen->set_size('10');    
       $formathead->set_color('black');
       $formathead->set_align('center');
       $formathead->set_size('12');    
       $formathead->set_bold();
 
#########
#figure out how long each field is 
#Yes I know this is horribly inefficient but boss wants columns presiz
+ed
##############
  $k=1;
    while (@nrow = $query->fetchrow){
       $i=0;
    foreach $tuple (@nrow) {
       if (length($tuple) > @leng[$i]) {
       @leng[$i] = length($tuple);
     }
    $i++;  
    }
    $k++;
 }
 $p=0;
      for($fc=1;$fc !=$nfields; $fc++)
         {
            $fname = $query->{NAME}->[$fc];
               if (@leng[$p] < length($fname)) {
               @leng[$p] = length($fname);}
                $p++;
         }

##########
#and set the column to that width
###########
$s=0;
for($fc=1;$fc !=$nfields; $fc++) {
            $fname = $query->{NAME}->[$fc];
        if ($fname =~ /description/) {$worksheet1->set_col_width($s,$s
+, 58);
        } else {
        $worksheet1->set_col_width($s,$s, @leng[$s] +10);
        $s++;
        }
       }
########
#name the fields
############
$l=1;
     for($fc=1;$fc !=$nfields; $fc++)
        {
           $fname = $query->{NAME}->[$fc];
              $worksheet1->write(0, $l, $fname, $formathead);    
               $l++;
        }
     
###########
#write the actual data to the sheet
###############
    $k=1;
    while (@nrow = $query->fetchrow){
       $i=0;
    foreach $tuple (@nrow) {
       $worksheet1->write($k, $i, $tuple, $formatgen);
       }
    $i++;  
    }
    $k++;
 }   
return(@data_in_form);
}
[download]

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