Dont Trust This Guy why not take my word for it? A blog by Jim Jeffers

Generating an excel document is not so difficult to achieve but limited unfortunately. You cannot write formulas or generate charts via the existing available tools but you can achieve usable results overall. Here is a snippet I used to generate sales forecasts involving data pulled together from two active record objects. Here is the gem you’ll need.

• Update: the link I was posting to prior points to a new Ruby project. The correct link can be found here.

  # Builds an excel report.
  def report
    # Grab time span for report
    get_span

    # Define stats levels to include.
    status = %w(high medium low lost won)

    # Create workbook.
    file = "#{session[:user_id]}_#{Time.now.strftime("%m%d%G%s")}_forecast.xls"
    workbook = Excel.new("#{RAILS_ROOT}/reports/#{file}")

    heading = Format.new(
       :color     => "green",
       :bold      => true,
       :underline => true
    )

    data = Format.new(
       :color     => "black",
       :bold      => false,
       :underline => false
    )

    workbook.add_format(heading)
    workbook.add_format(data)

    # Cycle through each status level
    status.each do |status|
      start_column, start_row = 2, 3
      worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet(status)
      opportunities = get_opportunities_that_are(status)

      #Cycle through the opportunities
      row = start_row
      totals, dates = [], []

      for opp in opportunities
        worksheet.write(row,start_column,opp.client,heading)

        column = start_column + 1
        opp.find_forecasts_within(@span[0],@span[-1]).each do |i|
          worksheet.write(row,column,i.volume,data)
          totals[column] = i.volume + totals[column].to_i
          dates[column] = i.date.strftime("%b '%y")
          column += 1
        end    

        row += 1
      end

      # Generate the totals row and monthly headings
      column = start_column+1
      @span.length.times do
        worksheet.write(row,column,totals[column],heading)
        worksheet.write(start_row-1,column,dates[column],heading)
        column += 1
      end

    end

    workbook.close
    redirect_to :action => 'show'
  end