[Zope] RE: CSV (Was: Perl scripts)

[Warnes, Gregory R]

> So back to the original topic:  Is there any example how to use an
> external Perl script and shipping some parameters to it?  I just found
> the statement that it is possible.  I wonder if anybody tried ...

I regularly use a Perl script called from Zope to do the opposite
conversion: *from* xls *to* csv.   Initially, I used this code in an
external python script, but I've now created a Zope product called 'CSVFile'
which checks the file extension and automatically converts uploaded files
from xls to csv if required.  Here is the appropriate code snippet:

##
## Configuration
##

## Perl Path
PERL_PATH='/usr/local/bin/perl'

## Location of perl script 'xls2csv.pl'
XLS2CSV_PATH = '/usr/local/zope/current/Extensions/xls2csv.pl'

# ... other stuff here ...


def
ExcelToCSV(ExcelData=None,ExcelName='ExcelFile.xls',CSVName='CSVFile.csv'):
   """Translate  the first worksheet of a Microsoft Excel file to CSV
      format by calling the perl script 'xls2csv.pl'
   """

   if ExcelData == None:
       return None

   dirinfo = do_tmpdir()
   
   excelfile = open(ExcelName,"w")
   excelfile.write(ExcelData)
   excelfile.close()

   HERE = dirinfo['tmpdir']

   command = "%s %s %s %s  1 2>1 > tmp.out " % (PERL_PATH,
                                             XLS2CSV_PATH,
                                             HERE + ExcelName,
                                             HERE + CSVName ) 
               
#   print "Executing command '%s'" % command

   retval = os.system( command )

   if retval==0:
      csvfile = open(CSVName,"r")
      CSVData = csvfile.read()
      csvfile.close()
   else:
      CSVData = None

   clean_tmpdir(dirinfo)

   return CSVData


As an aside, I use double-quotes to bracket each cells contents and comma
separation.   With this, I haven't had any problems here with MS-Excel
failing to properly convert csv files when opening them -- with any of IE,
Mozilla, Netscape 4 on W2K.   

-Greg


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