| title | category | menu_order | tags | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Use the Excel Exporter |
Integration |
6 |
|
It is standard Mendix functionality to export items from a data grid in a Mendix application to the Excel format via an Export to Excel button. However, in instances where more customized Excel documents are required, an app can leverage Mendix App Store content to create custom Excel documents based off of configurable templates. To achieve this, your app will require two Mendix App Store modules and the subsequent configuration of the documents.
In this section, you will learn how to download the necessary modules from the Mendix App Store. In just a few clicks, the modules will be imported into your app project. The modules required for this process are Mx Model Reflection and Excel Exporter.
{{% alert type="info" %}} The Mx Model Reflection module is used in most Mendix apps. The purpose of this module is to enable the app to reflect into the domain model (entities and attributes) and microflow definitions at runtime. {{% /alert %}}
To download the modules, follow these steps:
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Open the Mendix App Store from within Studio Pro.
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Search for the keyword reflection and select Mx Model reflection:
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Click Download to include the module in your app project. It will be imported into Project > App Store modules in the Project Explorer.
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Search for the keyword Excel, select Excel exporter, and download that module into your app project:
{{% alert type="warning" %}} Depending on the layout selected when the project was created, errors in the Modeler may arise due to the new module's default layouts. To correct this, open each page that has an error and update the layout to the desired layout within the app. {{% /alert %}}
In this section of the how-to, you will learn how to add the required pages in the app project's Navigation that are needed to configure both the Mx Model Reflection and the Excel Export templates that will be used within the app.
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In the Modeler, open Project > Navigation.
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Add a new item to the Navigation to access MxModelReflection.MxObjects_Overview:
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Add a new item to the Navigation to access XLSReport.Excel_Document_Overview:
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Open Project Security and assign these two modules to the Administrator user role:
In this section, you will learn how to run the Mx Model Reflection synchronization so the app can leverage the output from that process to create highly customizable Excel Export templates.
To run the MxModelReflection sync, run your app, view it, and follow these steps:
- Right-click the MxReflection navigation item to open the MxReflection overview page.
- Select each module the app needs to synchronize and click Click to refresh.
- Under Synchronize all entities and microflows of checked modules on the left, click Click to refresh .
In this section, you will learn how to create a basic Excel export template within your app. This section will cover an overview of the various configuration items to enable you to start building the desired templates.
{{% alert type="info" %}} The Excel Exporter has many moving pieces that allow the configurations to be as simple or complex as the user desires. This how-to will go over the basics to get you started, but building the desired template will vary according to configuration options. {{% /alert %}}
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In the Modeler, open the domain model for your app project and add an entity to serve as a "master export" entity that is of specialization FileDocument.
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Create an association between the newly created entity and the entity(ies) that you will want to serve as a base for the Excel export.
To set up a template, run your app, view it, and follow these steps:
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Click Excel Exporter to open the exporter overview page.
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Click the New to create a new template.
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Configure the Filename (without extension) to be the default file name when the template is used.
{{% alert type="info" %}}The file name can always be changed when the template is used within a microflow. {{% /alert %}}
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Configure the Input Object to be the file document entity that is associated to your entity to be exported.
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Provide a Description for identifying and documenting what this exact template is used for.
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Specify the Date time export format for how the dates and times should appear in the Excel file once exported.
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Under the Worksheets section for the template, select New to create a new sheet template:
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Specify the Name that will be given to the sheet when the file is exported.
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Configure the Row Object that you want to export and set the reference to the template input object (if input object is used).
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Configure the Start retrieved data at row to set the ordinal number in which the data should be exported.
{{% alert type="info" %}}This setting will possibly trim the result set being exported, as the export will go from this value to the end of the list of data {{% /alert %}}
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Select if the export should export distinct only or allow duplicate data
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Specify the Column default width and Row default height (or leave them as defaults).
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Specify if the extract will Use Static Data or not.
{{% alert type="info" %}}If static data is used, that will be configured below. {{% /alert %}}
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Specify if the Default text style that will denote the pre-defined style to be applied to the exported data.
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Specify if the Default header text style that will denote the pre-defined style to be applied to the header data.
{{% alert type="info" %}}Specifying styles are addressed in the section below. {{% /alert %}}
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On the Column Data tab, select New to create a new export column:
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The Column number will be set automatically, but can be overwritten to the desired ordinal number.
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Define a Name for the column and specify if that Name should be the Column Header as well when exported.
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Specify the Retrieve type to identify if this column will be an attribute or a reference.
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Specify the Select attribute to identify the exact attribute on the row entity in which this column corresponds to.
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Specify if the column should result in an aggregate. Note that only types of decimal, integer, and long can be aggregated.
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Open the Static Data tab and select New to create a new export column.
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Specify the Row and Column that the static value should be placed.
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Enter a name for the cell in the Name field.
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Specify the Type by selecting if the cell is Static Text, Object Data, or Aggregate Function. This example uses Static Text (which changes the Name field into Excel Text upon selection).
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Specify the Style that should be applied to the cell.
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Back on the main page for your new template, click New in the Styles section to create a new style that can be applied to any of the data in the Excel export:
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Specify the properties of the style that will be applied to the cells.
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Click Save to make the style available for dynamic columns, static columns, and headers.
In this section, you will learn how to call the newly created Excel export template in your application.
To retrieve the template and generate the document, follow these steps:
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Create a microflow that either takes an inbound parameter of the object that needs to be exported, or retrieve that object into your microflow.
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In your microflow, call the XLSReport.GenerateExcelDoc Java action (available from the module's JavaActions folder) to pass the required objects to the module.
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In your microflow, download the resulting FileDocument object.
Your microflow should look similar to this:
