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Creating a new output channel to spreadsheet (.xlsx)

  • 28 September 2020
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I am looking to Add a new output channel so that it goes straight to a excel spreadsheet and not in a CSV format. I am wondering if its possible to set it up so that it outputs to a .xlsx format?

I have tried doing it but it wants me to click ‘csv’ , ‘xml’, ‘txt’ or HTML even once I have clicked ‘use other extension’.

 

Anyone got any ideas on whether this is possible or not ?

 

Thanks

Cameron

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Best answer by Rusiru Dharmadasa 28 September 2020, 11:13

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Rusiru Dharmadasa
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Hi Cameron,

 

Unfortunately the closest file type that output channels can export is CSV. You can use “other type” option and give an extension as xlsx format. But still the underline file format would be comma separated (or similar) CSV format. 

 

But you can open it in MS excel without any issues. 

Rusiru
Yasas Kasthuriarachchi
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Hi @GilCamerond,

Hope the following information will help you to understand further on this and clarify the question.

  • The output channels functionality in IFS Applications (and the Enterprise Explorer client) has support for 4 different file formats (note that a file format is not the same as a file extension, even if a file format usually has a commonly used file extension).
  • The 4 file formats supported are comma separated values, extensible markup language, plain text and hypertext markup language (often abbreviated as CSV, XML, TXT and HTML which also happens to be commonly used file extensions for files of these formats).
  • There is however an additional setting that enables you to override the default file extension and chose whatever file extension you would like. The file format will remain whatever format/type you've selected of the 4 format listed earlier. This means that you can select to create a comma separated value (CSV) file with the extension .abc for instance. This is convenient because in Windows you typically associate file extensions with programs used to open file of a particular format.
  • This possibility to override the default file extension for the file created enables you to separate these files from other files (of the same format/type) and for instance associate the .abc file type with some other program.
  • The file extension you specify doesn't change the file format though. Eg: Renaming a .csv to .pdf doesn't make it a PDF. 
  • However R&D has given some thought onto creating a native Excel .xlsx file since it has some benefits but there is no confirmed information on that.
  • Hence you would need to export first as csv or xml or text or html.

Hope the above information will help.
Best Regards,
Yasas

G
Rank
Badge +2

Hi Cameron,

 

Unfortunately the closest file type that output channels can export is CSV. You can use “other type” option and give an extension as xlsx format. But still the underline file format would be comma separated (or similar) CSV format. 

 

But you can open it in MS excel without any issues. 

Thanks for confirming it 

G
Rank
Badge +2

Hi @GilCamerond,

Hope the following information will help you to understand further on this and clarify the question.

  • The output channels functionality in IFS Applications (and the Enterprise Explorer client) has support for 4 different file formats (note that a file format is not the same as a file extension, even if a file format usually has a commonly used file extension).
  • The 4 file formats supported are comma separated values, extensible markup language, plain text and hypertext markup language (often abbreviated as CSV, XML, TXT and HTML which also happens to be commonly used file extensions for files of these formats).
  • There is however an additional setting that enables you to override the default file extension and chose whatever file extension you would like. The file format will remain whatever format/type you've selected of the 4 format listed earlier. This means that you can select to create a comma separated value (CSV) file with the extension .abc for instance. This is convenient because in Windows you typically associate file extensions with programs used to open file of a particular format.
  • This possibility to override the default file extension for the file created enables you to separate these files from other files (of the same format/type) and for instance associate the .abc file type with some other program.
  • The file extension you specify doesn't change the file format though. Eg: Renaming a .csv to .pdf doesn't make it a PDF. 
  • However R&D has given some thought onto creating a native Excel .xlsx file since it has some benefits but there is no confirmed information on that.
  • Hence you would need to export first as csv or xml or text or html.

Hope the above information will help.
Best Regards,
Yasas

Thanks for your reply!

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