Page Comparison

Principles of Operation

The Excel Channel renders supported nodes from the abstract report by copying cell patterns from the Excel template(s) and “stamping” them on the Excel report:

• Cell The cell style is taken from the template.

• Cell context The cell value is taken from data in the report.

• Unsupported nodes are silently ignored, thus a report intended for Word or online should always (at least partially) be convertible to an Excel document.

...

• The style of the pattern cells is copied to the next rows (or columns for generic tables) in the Excel report. This includes format, font, row height and column width, alignment, wrapping, colors, conditional formatting, merging, etc.

• The content value of the pattern cells is evaluated, then copied. All ${...} expressions in the content value will be treated as JavaScript expressions on report specific data. The expression can access the following identifiers:

...

data: {
  mainTitle?: string;
  subTitle?: string;
  reportName: string;
  params: object // Execution Parameters 
}

"data": {
  "mainTitle": "Rückforderbare Quellensteuern",
  "subTitle": "Vom 01.01.2024 bis 31.03.2024",
  "reportName": "Rückforderbare Quellensteuern",
  "params": {
    "portfolioId": "00001",
    "reportingDate": "2024-03-31",
    ...
  }

data: Issue

"data": {
  "id": "rep-2024-03-31-15-6",
  "description": "Cell pattern 'data' to stamp DataNode 'returns' not found",
  "severity": "error",
  "source": "rendering"
}

...

For all supported nodes, the following parameters are considered:

"parameters": {
  "style": "ReclWhTax"
}

"parameters": {
  "pageBreakBefore": true
}

"parameters": {
  "renderingOptions": {
    "excel": {
      "worksheetName":  {
        "resolved": "Rückforderbare QST"
      }
    }
  }
}

...

data: Record<string,string>

"data": {
  "ValueDate": "Valutadatum",
  "TradeDate": "Ex-Datum",
  "TransactionId": "Trx-Id",
  "Amount": "Betrag"
}

data: Record<string,number | string | boolean | Date | null>

"data": {
  "ValueDate": "2024-02-14T00:00:00Z", // as Date instance
  "TradeDate": "2024-02-12T00:00:00Z", // as Date instance
  "TransactionId": "41567",
  "Amount": 11424.3
}

data: { groupName: string }

"data": {
  "groupName": "Current Account EUR"
}

...

If there is no columnHeaders pattern, a VerticalTableNode is rendered in a generic way. This mode of rendering is similar to the Word Channel: each column is rendered individually, depending on its value type. Typical value types are text, amount, count, date. The basic idea is that the style of a column (particularly format and alignment) depends on its value type.

Column related pattern names therefore contain the value type:

data: { header: string }

"data": {
  "header": "Betrag"
}

data: { value: number | string | boolean | Date | null }

"data": {
  "value": 11424.3
}

data: { rowName: string }

"data": {
  "rowName": "Gebühren- und Zinsabrechnung"
}

VerticalTableNode Parameters

VerticalTableNode Parameters

"parameters": {
  "renderingOptions": {
    "excel": {
      "repeatHeaders": true
    }
  }
}

"parameters": {
  "renderingOptions": {
    "excel": {
      "tableWidth": 115
    }
  }
}

...

Titles: SectionNode

A SectionNode renders its titles, and may start a new worksheet.

Simple Text: ParagraphNode

A ParagraphNode is renders its content.

Arbitrary Data: DataNode

A DataNode renders the contents of its data object. It can be used to render arbitrary content to the Excel document, as the type of the data object itself is user defined.

Since the cell patterns depend on the type of data in the object, a DataNode must have a style.

Production Errors: ErrorNode

An ErrorNode (typically the result of an error during report production) renders the error details.

...

data: {
  mainTitle?: string;
  subTitle?: string;
}

"data": {
  "mainTitle": "Renditeattribution",
  "subTitle": "Vom 01.01.2024 bis 31.03.2024, nach Anlagekategorie"
}

Simple Text: ParagraphNode

A ParagraphNode is renders its titles and its content.

data: {
  mainTitle?: string;
  subTitle?: string;
  content?: string;
}

"data": {
  "content": "Disclaimer: the information in this document is..."
}

Arbitrary Data: DataNode

A DataNode renders the contents of its data object. It can be used to render arbitrary data to the Excel document, as the type of the data object itself is user defined. This allows to render relatively complex objects into a large cell pattern.

data: object | object[]

"data": [
  { "id": "A", "name": "Letter A", "order": 1 },
  { "id": "B", "name": "Letter B", "order": 2 }
]

Production Errors: ErrorNode

An ErrorNode (typically the result of an error during report production) renders the error details.

data: {
  error: string;
  message?: string;
  code?: string;
}

"data": {
  "error": "Error: No building block with name 'BalanceBB' registered.",
  "code": "production-rep-20231213-170410-1",
  "message": "Fehler bei der Reportproduktion"
}

Debugging Excel Rendering

If the report parameter addExcelTrace is true, the rendering process is traced for each pattern, and the trace appended to the Excel document as worksheet "Pattern Usage Trace".

The trace will contain a line for each cell pattern stamped (including attempts non-existing patterns). It contains the following columns:

Example trace

...