Documentation – Introduction

Pythonjava: Where to Use Aspose.Cells

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aspose.Cells is created to help developers create and manage Microsoft Excel spreadsheets programmatically. Aspose.Cells does not only understand spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel sheet format (XLS/XLSX) but also many other file formats such as Comma Separated Values (CSV), Tab‑delimited/TSV (text), SpreadsheetML, etc.

Aspose.Cells provides most of the features available in Microsoft Excel, but the exciting thing is that Aspose.Cells can process Excel files dynamically, which enables developers to process thousands or millions of spreadsheets very quickly.

This article discusses common scenarios of using Aspose.Cells.

Possible Usage Scenarios

It’s up to developers how they use Aspose.Cells, but there are a few common scenarios in which Aspose.Cells can help. The most common use of Aspose.Cells is deploying it on the web server or in web services for server‑side processing. Some of the possible usage scenarios of Aspose.Cells are described below.

Automated Spreadsheet Management

Users upload manually created spreadsheets to a server.
Aspose.Cells is used to open files and retrieve data.
After the data is retrieved:
1. The data is saved to a database.
2. Certain data is presented in web pages.
3. Some aspects of the spreadsheets are modified and saved back to Microsoft Excel files.

Web Application

Users input data in web pages.
Data is collected by the web server.
Aspose.Cells is used to populate data in brand‑new files or pre‑defined template files.
After the Excel file is created, it can be sent to the user as a report, etc.

We have discussed a few of the most common scenarios of using Aspose.Cells in a web‑based environment. However, Aspose.Cells is equally useful in desktop‑based applications as well.

Pythonjava: Aspose.Cells Object Model

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aspose.Cells Object Model provides information about the structural relationships between the objects of Aspose.Cells class library.

The top level structure of the Aspose.Cells object model is shown below in a hierarchical manner.

Top level structure of Aspose.Cells Object Model

As you can see from the above figure, the root of the object model is the Workbook object. A brief description of a few of the objects is provided below for introductory purposes.

WorksheetCollection/Worksheet

Workbook object contains the WorksheetCollection, which represents the collection of all the Worksheet objects in a spreadsheet as shown below:

Worksheets & Worksheet objects

Cells/Cell

Each Worksheet object contains a Cells object that represents the collection of all Cell objects in a worksheet as shown below:

Cells & Cell objects

You can use the Cell object to get and set the value, style, formula, and other properties of a single cell.

ChartCollection/Chart

The ChartCollection object represents a collection of all the Chart objects in a Worksheet. Each Chart object is comprised of several other objects that work together to create and manage charts. The Chart structure in Aspose.Cells is shown in the diagram below:

Object model of the Chart

CommentCollection/Comment

Each Worksheet object also contains a Comments object that represents the collection of all Comment objects in a worksheet as shown below:

Comments & Comment objects

A Comment object is used to add a comment to any specified cell in the worksheet.

HorizontalPageBreakCollection/HorizontalPageBreak

Each Worksheet object contains a HorizontalPageBreakCollection that represents a collection of all HorizontalPageBreak objects in a worksheet as shown below:

HPageBreaks & HPageBreak objects

A HorizontalPageBreak object is used to create a horizontal page break in the worksheet.

HyperlinkCollection/Hyperlink

A Worksheet object also contains a HyperlinkCollection that represents a collection of all Hyperlink objects in the worksheet as shown below:

Hyperlinks & Hyperlink objects

A Hyperlink object represents a hyperlink in the worksheet. Developers can set the hyperlink address and other related properties using a Hyperlink object.

PictureCollection/Picture

Each Worksheet object contains a PictureCollection object that represents a collection of all Picture objects in a worksheet as shown below:

Pictures & Picture objects

A Picture object represents a picture in the worksheet. Using a Picture object, developers can not only add pictures to their worksheets but also position these pictures at any location. It is also possible to set borders or other properties of the pictures.

VerticalPageBreakCollection/VerticalPageBreak

Each Worksheet object contains a VerticalPageBreakCollection object that represents a collection of all VerticalPageBreak objects in a worksheet as shown below:

VPageBreaks & VPageBreak objects

A VerticalPageBreak object is used to create a vertical page break in the worksheet.

Pythonjava: Your First Aspose.Cells Application - Hello World

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This beginner’s topic shows how developers can create a simple first application (Hello World) using Aspose.Cells' simple API. The application creates a Microsoft Excel file with the words Hello World in a specified cell of a worksheet.

Creating the Hello World Application

To create the Hello World application using Aspose.Cells API:

Create an instance of the Workbook class.
Apply the license:
1. If you have purchased a license, then use the license in your application to get access to Aspose.Cells' full functionality.
2. If you are using the evaluation version of the component (if you’re using Aspose.Cells without a license), skip this step.
Create a new Microsoft Excel file, or open an existing file in which you want to add/update some text.
Access any cell of a worksheet in the Microsoft Excel file.
Insert the words Hello World! into the accessed cell.
Generate the modified Microsoft Excel file.

The examples below demonstrate the above steps.

Creating a Workbook

The following example creates a new workbook from scratch, writes the words “Hello World!” into cell A1 on the first worksheet, and saves the file.

The generated spreadsheet

Opening an Existing File

The following example opens an existing Microsoft Excel template file called book1.xls, writes the words “Hello World!” in cell A1 of the first worksheet, and saves the workbook as a new file.

Pythonjava: Evaluate Aspose.Cells

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can easily download Aspose.Cells for evaluation from PyPI(https://pypi.org/project/aspose-cells/). The evaluation download is the same as the download for the full version: the evaluation version becomes licensed when you apply a license.

The evaluation version of Aspose.Cells (i.e., Aspose.Cells without a license applied) provides most of the product functionality. One limitation is that it always injects an extra worksheet with an evaluation watermark when a spreadsheet is opened or saved. The injected extra evaluation watermark worksheet in the workbook is shown below:

Evaluation warning – an extra worksheet

If you want to test Aspose.Cells without evaluation version limitations, request a 30‑day temporary license.

Pythonjava: What is a Designer Spreadsheet

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Do You Want to Speed Up Development?

You can use Aspose.Cells to create Excel files from scratch with the help of its flexible API. One of the most common uses for Aspose.Cells is to create and populate Excel files with data, which may come from an existing database, a user, or other sources, dynamically. As well as adding data to Excel files, you’ll also need to apply formatting (look and feel).

Formatting takes time. What could speed up development?

The Solution - Designer Spreadsheets

To speed up your development, Aspose.Cells offers the exciting feature Designer Spreadsheet.

What is a Designer Spreadsheet?

A designer spreadsheet is an Excel file created using Microsoft Excel in which all formatting is already applied and the contents can be decided at design time. It’s more like a template file that doesn’t contain any data but just the formatting, as shown below:

Designer spreadsheet

How to Use It?

After creating a designer spreadsheet, use Aspose.Cells to read the designer spreadsheet and add data to its specified positions (according to the pre‑defined format settings) at runtime. For example, in the screenshot above, you can see that we already decided at design time to add Product Name, Category Name, Quantity Per Unit, and Units In Stock columns. They don’t have any data yet: this will be added at runtime. The above figure shows a very simple spreadsheet, but designer spreadsheets save you time even on complex spreadsheets.

Smart Markers

Additionally, Aspose.Cells lets you add smart markers to the designer spreadsheet. Smart markers are processed at runtime using the WorkbookDesigner class’s Process method. This can help you write less code and still get great results.

Find out more about smart markers.

Pythonjava: Check Version Number

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wondering which version of Aspose.Cells you are using? We publish new versions of Aspose.Cells, both to introduce new features and to fix issues, on a regular basis. The version number consists of a major version number, a minor version number, and a hotfix version number. Each number must be an integer from 0 upwards. The format is as follows:

major.minor.hotfix

When we release a new build of Aspose.Cells, we update the version number.

This article explains how to check which version of Aspose.Cells is installed on the system manually and using the Aspose.Cells API.

Check Version Number Manually

To find out which version of Aspose.Cells you are using manually:

Right‑click the Aspose.Cells.dll file and select Properties.
Click the Version (or Details) tab to check the version number.

Check Version Number Using the Aspose.Cells API

To find out which version of Aspose.Cells you are using through the API, use the CellsHelper class’s GetVersion static method to get Aspose.Cells' version number.