Creating new workbooks based on existing workbooks saves a lot of work and also allows adding features that are not directly available in POI / XLUtils, such as charts.
Templates are regular workbooks.
Creating a new workbook based on an existing one is very simple, you just need to call XL.CreateWriterFromTemplate instead of CreateWriterBlank.
Charts
If the source data size is known then adding a chart is trivial. No need to do anything special.
When the size is unknown, several extra steps are needed.
It works by creating a dynamic named data range and setting it as the chart's data source.
Later we will overwrite the dynamic data range with a standard named range with the known size.
The steps to create a dynamic named data range are demonstrated in the video.
It is done with the OFFSET command from the Name Manager dialog (ctrl + F3):
The <top left cell> points to the first data row, not to the header.
The relevant code from the example:
Templates are regular workbooks.
Creating a new workbook based on an existing one is very simple, you just need to call XL.CreateWriterFromTemplate instead of CreateWriterBlank.
Charts
If the source data size is known then adding a chart is trivial. No need to do anything special.
When the size is unknown, several extra steps are needed.
It works by creating a dynamic named data range and setting it as the chart's data source.
Later we will overwrite the dynamic data range with a standard named range with the known size.
The steps to create a dynamic named data range are demonstrated in the video.
It is done with the OFFSET command from the Name Manager dialog (ctrl + F3):
B4X:
=OFFSET(<top left cell>, 0, 0, <number of rows>, <number of columns>)The relevant code from the example:
B4X:
Workbook = xl.CreateWriterFromTemplate(File.DirAssets, "Template.xlsx")
Dim sheet As XLSheetWriter = Workbook.CreateSheetWriterByName("Sheet1")
For i = 0 To CustomListView1.Size - 1
Dim item() As Object = CustomListView1.GetValue(i)
sheet.PutString(xl.AddressOne("B", 3 + i), item(0))
sheet.PutNumber(xl.AddressOne("C", 3 + i), item(1))
Next
Dim LastRow1 As Int = sheet.LastAccessed.Row0Based + 1
Workbook.AddNamedRange("Item", xl.CreateXLRangeWithSheet(xl.AddressName("B3"), xl.AddressOne("B", LastRow1), sheet.PoiSheet)) 'overwrite the name range
Workbook.AddNamedRange("Amount", xl.CreateXLRangeWithSheet(xl.AddressName("C3"), xl.AddressOne("C", LastRow1), sheet.PoiSheet))
Dim f As String = FileChooser.ShowSave(B4XPages.GetNativeParent(Me))
If f <> "" Then
f = Workbook.SaveAs(f, "", True)
xl.OpenExcel(f)
CustomListView1.Clear
End If
End Sub