OpenXML SDK Spreadsheet starter kits

Question

I am trying to start working with Excel documents through the OpenXML SDK Spreadsheet API. But I haven't found any good guides or even examples on how to create a xlsx file from scratch. Only how to open an existing document and modify it.

I have been thinking on having a empty template document and make a copy of it an then begin my proccessing on it. But it doesent feel right. It might be easier but I not comfortable using a technique I dont feel that I understand "pretty" good at least.

So my question is: Does anyone have any good tips on articles or books or any other type of resource that explains the API?

Thanks in advance. /johan

Answer 1

Your best bet is to download the OpenXml SDK 2.0 and install. Once installed, check the Tools directory for a tool called DocumentReflector.exe. Using this tool you can "crack open" an existing xslx document (or docx or pptx). Once opened, the application will show you a treeview of the parts, a panel with the xml for a given part and the code required to generate the document from scratch.

This should give you a great start and get you to really understand the SpreadsheetML syntax (I used this tool to learn WordProcessingML and it REALLY helped!).

Also see how to create and download excel document using asp.net

Answer 2

I've got to admit. The OpenXml SDK is nice, but there's still a lot to creating a blank spreadsheet.

However, there is a set of Helper Classes available on codeplex called simpleooxml

Very little in the way of documentation, but this blog post shows how to create a new spreadsheet without having to have an existing template.

I've found it works pretty well.

Answer 3

http://openxmldeveloper.org is a pretty good resource, with concepts and code samples in various programming languages

Answer 4

On MSDN there is now pretty good documentation on all the classes, ie: SpreadsheetDocument and a couple walkthroughs like 'how to create a spreadsheet'.