[Ruby] working with excel spreadsheets (.xls) in ruby/rails

[John Howe, Seattle.rb]

I have a test tracking application that imports existing Excel test plans
into the database. Basically, I wrote an Excel parser in perl, using the
CPAN modules: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel, HTML::TextToHTML, DBI, and
DBD::Mysql.

I think the closest thing in Ruby land is the attempted port of
Spreadsheet::ParseExcel @ http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/parseexcel/

> i'm building an app that will updates its list of available products
> every month from a file on the distributors website. unfortunately,
> they don't provide anything remotely resembling an api. the best i
> can do is import the contents of an Excel spreadsheet.
>
> i've looked around a bit and all i'm seeing is:
> - generating xls files from ruby
> - manually export a .csv from excel then importing from that
> - using windows specific ruby libraries
>
> before i dig into this and start building it myself, i wanted to know
> if anyone else knows of anything out there that doesn't anything like
> this. basically, just reads the contents of an .xls file and enters
> them into a table with an identical mapping.
>
> any ideas?
> thanks
> shane
>
> ------------------------------------
> first things first. next things next.
> http://theresistancearmy.com/blog/
> ------------------------------------
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ruby at zenspider.com - Seattle.rb non-commercial list
> http://www.zenspider.com/seattle.rb
> http://www.zenspider.com/mailman/listinfo/ruby
>
>


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Howe, B.S, M.A., Sr. Systems Administrator
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
 -- George Bernard Shaw

It's hard to read through a book on the principles of magic without
glancing at the cover periodically to make sure it isn't a book on
software design.
 --Bruce Tognazzini