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 style is taken from the template.
Cell context 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.
Cell Patterns
A cell pattern is a single, rectangular range of cells in a template with a name assigned to it. Names are assigned in Excel either by selecting a cell or cell range, then defining a name for it, or in the Name Manager.
See [Supported Node Types] for the names to be assigned.
The style of the cells is copied to the stamped cells in the Excel report. This includes format, font, row height and column width, wrapping, colors, conditional formatting, merging, etc.
The content of the cells is evaluated, then copied. All
${...}expressions in the content will be treated as JavaScript expressions on report specificdata.
Identifier | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The data to be rendered. This is e.g. a node, a row header, a table fact or a report specific data object. See [Supported Node Types] for details. |
|
| Render inline language dependent content. Takes an |
|
| Formatter for dates and date periods, where the Excel formats cannot be used. |
|
Style and Language Specific Cell Patterns
Whenever a pattern is searched for a node with a specific style, the following names are checked in order:
<style>.<pattern>.<reportLanguage><style>.<pattern><pattern>.<reportLanguage><pattern>
Example: the header pattern when rendering a node with style MyStyle in language de is obtained by looking for MyStyle.header.de, MyStyle.header,header.de, header.
Templates
The template handling of the Excel channel is very similar to the Word Channel. Each Excel report needs at least a main template to render correctly:
The main template’s name is taken from the
styleSheetproperty of the report type’s"excel"outputFormat. If not specified, the defaultexcel_standard.xlsxis assumed.The main template can contain any number of cell patterns.
The first worksheet in the main template defines the page setup (page size, margins, page header and footer) of each worksheet in the resulting report.
The cell patterns defined in a template can be distributed over multiple worksheets to facilitate their organisation. Apart from that and the special role of the first worksheet, the worksheets in a template are not related to the worksheets in the rendered Excel.
Cinnamon may also be configured to support additional templates providing installation wide defaults for cell patterns, using the otherExcelTemplateIds configuration option.
As with Word templates, the actual file name of the template is prefixed by template_. The file name of the default template is therefore template_excel_standard.xlsx.
Language Specific Templates
Each template used (the main template and the configured additional templates) can be present in language specific variants. When e.g. rendering in language de, a styleSheet: "abc.xlsx" will select the template file template_abc.de.xlsx if present, otherwise the language independent file template_abc.xlsx. Language specific templates often add more redundancy and maintenance to a setup, but may be easier to manage than language specific cell patterns in some cases.
Page headers and footers
Page headers and footers set in the first worksheet of the main template are copied to all worksheets produced. They may contain ${...} expressions, like cell patterns. The data attributes supported are the same as for header and footer in [common cell patterns].
Supported Node Types
The Excel Channel supports a limited set of report nodes. All other node types in an abstract report are ignored, but not their children.
Common Cell Patterns
For all supported nodes, the following cell patterns are rendered:
Pattern Name | Description | Optional | Content Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rows at the top of a worksheet. Content data is taken from the node creating the new worksheet and the report. | ✔️
| "data": {
"mainTitle": <node mainTitle>,
"subTitle": <node subTitle>,
"reportName": <report name>,
"params": <report execution parameters>
}
|
| Rows at the bottom of a worksheet. The content data is the same as for the header. | ✔️ | As for |
| Cell created when an issue is encountered (e.g. a missing mandatory pattern). Content data is the issue. | ❌ | "data": {
"id": <issue id>,
"description": <issue description>,
"severity": "error",
"source": "rendering"
}
|
Common Parameters
For all supported nodes, the following parameters are considered:
Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The style to apply. Used as name prefix when looking for cell patterns. | "parameters": {
"style": "ReclWhTax",
...
}
|
| The Excel Channel rendering options. The supported options are:
| "parameters": {
"renderingOptions": {
"excel": {
"worksheetName": {
"resolved": "Rückforderbare QST"
},
"repeatHeaders": true
}
},
...
}
|
Tables: VerticalTableNode
Not surprisingly, a VerticalTableNode is rendered as rows and columns in Excel. There are two ways of rendering an table in Excel: styled and generic.
Styled Table Rendering
By specifying a style on the VerticalTableNode, the table will be rendered row by row. Each row, including the header row, corresponds to a cell pattern. Styled rendering therefore allows full control over the layout in Excel and as well as subselection and reordering of columns.
Generic Table Rendering
VerticalTableNodes without a style are 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.
Worksheets: SectionNode
A SectionNode is rendered with its titles.
Simple Text: ParagraphNode
A ParagraphNode is rendered as single line of text.
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