Excel::Template(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				      Excel::Template(3pm)

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

   new()
       This creates a Excel::Template object.

       Parameters

       o   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

       o   RENDERER

	   The default rendering engine is Spreadsheet::WriteExcel. You may, if you choose, change that to another choice. The legal values are:

	   o   Excel::Template->RENDER_NML

	       This is the default of Spreadsheet::WriteExcel.

	   o   Excel::Template->RENDER_BIG

	       This attempts to load Spreadsheet::WriteExcel::Big.

	   o   Excel::Template->RENDER_XML

	       This attempts to load Spreadsheet::WriteExcelXML.

       o   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.

	   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

       o   BIG_FILE

	   Instead, use RENDERER => Excel::Template->RENDER_BIG

   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.

       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.

       o   WORKBOOK

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

       o   WORKSHEET

	   This is the node representing a given worksheet.

       o   IF

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

       o   LOOP

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

       o   ROW

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

       o   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.

       o   BACKREF

	   This refers back to a cell previously named.

       o   CELL

	   This is the actual cell in a spreadsheet.

       o   FORMULA

	   This is a formula in a spreadsheet.

       o   RANGE

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

       o   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

   Robert Bohne <rbo@cpan.org>
       o   Swichting to Module::Install

       o   Add autofilter to worksheet

   Robert Graff
       o   Finishing formats

       o   Fixing several bugs in worksheet naming

   Jens Gassmann
       o   Add hide_gridlines to worksheet

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

perl v5.14.2							    2012-04-29						      Excel::Template(3pm)