FormMeta2Excel Add-On

This add-on is deprecated. Please use the ExcelImportExportAddOn

Export meta data in topics to a spreadsheet in Excel format. This add on can be used to extract the meta data from topics that use a form into a spreadsheet. A typical usage would be a issue tracking system where you would like to print out all issues in a nice format or manipulate the data in a spreadsheet program (Excel, OpenOffice) e.g. to print some graphs. The Excel sheet is generated with the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel Perl module. This is why this plugin will work on any operating system. The module uses Date::Manip to process dates.

Example

The attached Excel sheet is the output the add-on will generate when run against the two example issues in the ZIP file.

Usage

• Create a topic that has at least two settings
  • * Set FORM = YourForm Where YourForm is the name of the form that all topics use you whish to export from
  • A table that describes which parameters, in which order and how they are formated are exported.
    • The header row must be used as shown below
    • The Name column is the field name in the form
    • The Short Name is how the column header is printed
    • The Width is the width of a column. Can be empty.
    • The Orientation is either "v" or "h" for vertical or horizontal. Default is "h".
    • The Data Type is either text, number or date. number is the default.

      Name	Short Name	Width	Orientation	Data Type
      Line	LN	3	v	number
      IssueStatus?	State		v
      Severity	Sev		v
      FixPriority?	Pri		v
      By			v
      IssueDate?	IDate		v	date
      Region	Reg		v
      Service	Srv		v
      ShortDescription?	Title	20	h
      Impact		30	h
      Details		50	h
      RootCause?		50	h
      WorkAround?	WrkArnd?		v
      Resolution		50	h
      IssueOwner?	Ownr		v
      NextUpdate?	NxUpd?		v	date
      IssueFolder?	Fldr		v
      Topic			v
      TopicClassification	Class		v

  • Optionally specify the date and time format * Set DATETIMEFORMAT = yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
  • Optionally specify a filename for the Excel file with * Set FILENAME = Issues

Add-On Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this add-on. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the add-on on the server where TWiki is running.

• Install CPAN:Spreadsheet::WriteExcel and CPAN:Date::Manip. Both are "pure Perl", i.e. you won't need a compiler.
• Download the ZIP file from the Add-on Home (see below)
• Unzip FormMeta2ExcelAddOn.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/FormMeta2ExcelAddOn.txt	Add-on topic
  data/TWiki/FormMeta2ExcelAddOn.txt,v	Add-on topic repository
  data/Sandbox/SampleIssueTracked.txt	The control topic
  data/Sandbox/SampleWinInstPkgFailed.txt	Example topic
  data/Sandbox/SampleUsrTraingReqOnMouseUsage.txt	Example topic
  bin/topics2excel	Add-on script

• Test if the installation was successful:
  • Go to SampleIssueTracked? and
  • Click on the provided link
  • Your browser should ask you to open an Excel sheet

Note Bene

I work on a second add-on that does just the oposite of this one: Importing a sheet into TWiki.

Add-On Info

Add-on Author:	TWiki:Main/ClausLanghans
Add-on Version:	17 Apr 2006 (v1.000)
Change History:
17 Apr 2006:	Initial version
CPAN Dependencies:	CPAN:Spreadsheet::WriteExcel, CPAN:Date::Manip
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.005
License:	GPL
Add-on Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/FormMeta2ExcelAddOn
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/FormMeta2ExcelAddOnDev
Appraisal:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/FormMeta2ExcelAddOnAppraisal

Related Topic: TWikiAddOns

-- TWiki:Main/ClausLanghans - 17 Apr 2006