Microsoft Interoperability API (Excel)

The free API package for interoperability with Microsoft products on neurons has been extended, to now support interoperability with Microsoft Excel documents also (saved using Open XML SDK, i.e. .xlsx documents). Conversion of Spreadsheets is also supported, to Script. This can be used for processing the information in the Spreadsheets, using scrfipt operations, etc. The Mictosoft Interoperability package is an optional component that can be installed by the neuron operator. The API is protected, and requires either a login (using user accounts defined by the Admin-interface; no special privileges), or a JWT token issued by the neuron (available to clients connected via XMPP, for instance), or being logged in through a web session. The API cannot be accessed anonymously.

Some more information
Package	TAG.MicrosoftInterop.package
Installation key	Y/0hf+O003/pMh6CDnQTowb3DMJj3X28Xu0H0/bOPsIdGo+XOGY2kWsEyxkpKMSNdAOjSGDlxUIA00c066163c7125123382bdd308a2ad35
More information	https://github.com/Trust-Anchor-Group/MicrosoftInterop

Script Prompt

Once the package has been properly installed, it will insert itself into the Script Prompt on the Neuron®. It introduces an Excel button that can be used to open an INPUT field that allows you to upload an Excel document to the server, and convert it to Script, on the page. This way, you can experiment with the conversion capabilities provided. If you want to have documents for testing purposes, the repository contains a set of testing documents.

Internet Content Decoder

The package contains an Internet Content decoder for MS Excel documents. This means you can build your own web services, and similar tools, that receive Excel documents as content, and they will be automatically decoded. No automatic conversion to script is provided, as the script is supposed to be converted on the server, and not provided to the client, by default. You can convert the received Excel document using the static ExcelUtilities class on the server, or via the conversion API resource, if you request the script on the client.

Formatting Support

Microsoft Word supports a very rich set of features for formatting content in their documents. Markdown on the other hand, is not designed for creating formatted content in the same way, so a 1-to-1 conversion is not possible. But basic formatting constructs can be converted successfully. The following lists should give you an idea of what is supported and not.

What is exported?

As spreadsheets are exported to script, for processing purposes, formatting and Excel-specific formulas are not exported. Only values, and data types (such as the difference between strings, normalized (reused) strings, numbers, dates, times, etc.) are exported. Each sheet is exported as a Matrix, and a collection of sheets is exported as an object, where the tab names are used as property names, and the corresponding matrices as property values.

Logging of unrecognized elements

If converting an Excel document that contains elements the package library does not understand, information about these items will be logged to the event log. You can use this information to extend support to such items in the repository.

API Endpoint

API interface for the Excel -> Script conversion is very simple. You execute a POST to the /MicrosoftInterop/ExcelToScript resource on the Neuron® where the package is installed. The contents of the POST is the actual Excel document. The response will be Script, as text.

#api, #features, #new, #excel, #script, #microsoft