[ic] XLS import failure - 255 character limit issue.

[interchange-users@icdevgroup.org (Reid Sutherland)]

> I have seen problems with XLS created by Excel 97 with long fields. They
> are fine if generated by Gnumeric...
> 
> 

This is a good thing that someone has seen this :)

>>Now I've tested my install of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel and it reads the 
>>long descriptions fine.  I'm not sure what else I can do to aid in this 
>>matter.
> 
> 
> What code are you using to verify that? We would need to compare
> how it is done with the way IC does it.
> 
>        for( ; $iR <= $oWkS->{MaxRow}; $iR++) {
> 	  my $row = $oWkS->{Cells}[$iR];
> 	  @out = ();
> 	  for($iC = $mincol; $iC <= $maxcol; $iC++) {
> 	    if(! defined $row->[$iC]) {
> 		push @out, "";
> 		next;
> 	    }
> 	    push @out, $row->[$iC]->Value;
> 	  }
> 	  $sheets->{$sname} .= join "\t", @out;
> 	  $sheets->{$sname} .= "\n";
>        }
> 
> That is the loop that actually does the read. If there are embedded
> newlines or TABs it might cause a problem...we could add some
> translation stuff, I suppose. You might change this in import_fields:
> 
>     push @out, $row->[$iC]->Value;
> 
> to;
> 
>     my $v = $row->[$iC]->Value;
>     $v =~ tr/\n\t/\r /;
>     push @out, $v;
> 
> That will kill any tabs, of course, but will prevent import problems.
> 

This would be fine since I don't care for TABs in HTML anyway.  But I 
don't see any TABs in the particular Excel file.

Here's the code I borrowed from ParseExcel example scripts to test my 
Excel file.

--snip--
my $oBook = $oExcel->Parse('test.xls');
PrnBook($oBook);
sub PrnBook($)
{
     my($oBook) = @_;
     my($iR, $iC, $oWkS, $oWkC);

     print "=========================================\n";
     print "FILE  :", $oBook->{File} , "\n";
     print "COUNT :", $oBook->{SheetCount} , "\n";
     print "AUTHOR:", $oBook->{Author} , "\n";
     for(my $iSheet=0; $iSheet < $oBook->{SheetCount} ; $iSheet++) {
         $oWkS = $oBook->{Worksheet}[$iSheet];
         print "--------- SHEET:", $oWkS->{Name}, "\n";
         for(my $iR = $oWkS->{MinRow} ;
                 defined $oWkS->{MaxRow} && $iR <= $oWkS->{MaxRow} ; 
$iR++) {
             for(my $iC = $oWkS->{MinCol} ;
                             defined $oWkS->{MaxCol} && $iC <= 
$oWkS->{MaxCol} ; $iC++) {
                 $oWkC = $oWkS->{Cells}[$iR][$iC];
                 print "( $iR , $iC ) =>", $oWkC->Value, "\n" if($oWkC);
             }
         }
     }
}
--snip--

The variable naming is wicked and causes my eyes to hurt so it's hard 
for me to understand what is happening here.

-reid