[ic] Excel/PDF files on-the-fly

[interchange-users@icdevgroup.org (Joachim Leidinger)]

Rene Hertell wrote:
>>Look at www.intos.de! On the left menu, there is a menu
>>"KATALOG-DOWNLOAD". Click the button on the new page "Weiter". Click on
>>the link "Ohne Registrierung zum Downloadbereich gehen.". You will get a
>>list of xls and pdf files, which is created by some perl files of mine.
> 
> 
> Are these files written to file on a timed basis? I mean do you have a
> cron-job that takes care of this?

Yes! A cron-job is calling a perl file, which check the timestamp 
beetween the current "products.txt" or so and the created xls files. If 
the different is true by the condition of programmed value in my perl 
script, it will create a new files.


> What I did use now for all text-content files was the tag op=header method,
> which works really great and fast.
> 
> <-- file.csv.html --->
> [tag op=header interpolate=1]
> Content-type: applilcation/vnd.ms-excel
> [/tag]
> [query list=1 sql="select ..."][sql-param foo];[sql-param bar]
> [/query]
> 
> <-- end of file.csv.html --->
> 
> I was hoping that I could create a the xls and PDF files in a similar style
> as above..

I don't understand your question right! I've difficult to follow you.

But, your codes use any resource alyways by every request. All request 
of your visitors is wasting your resource of your server *by every 
request*. Did you understand, what I mean?

Once more .... every request of some pages, which make some results of 
some kind of output as a htmlfile, xyz-files, uvw-files, pdf-files, 
exel-file, etc. have not to be created *on the fly*, if the information 
is coming from the products database ifselft, which is not changing all 
the times. Did you understand what I mean? Sorry! I'm an old german boy 
with a weakness, to us the english language right.

In my judgement, the only sense of that kind of 
"on-the-fly-building-of-pdf­-or-excel-file-to-download" is for example 
the result of the receipt page or so.

If you have any kind of any files, which has to be "up to date" by any 
change of the products files, make sure, you check the timestamp first 
and create such kind of files to download by cron-job with the perl script.


> I have to try to find out if the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel module can do these
> things :)

It is very simple to use! Try it! :-)

ciao

Joachim

-- 
Hans-Joachim Leidinger | Dipl.-Phys.Ing. Entwicklung eCommerce
[leidinger@bpanet.de]
Black Point Arts Internet Solutions GmbH
http://www.bpanet.de