Solution to fulfill OA functions in Alfresco

[andy2_0]

I have a couple of Excel files stored in Alfresco Doc library, they are created based on several templates. I want to extract the values from the specific cells of those files for further process. I drafted the solution as below:

(1) create the Excel templates, set a specific cell to a JSON string, in which the values (extracted from other cells) are stored in a format;
(2) put the template file to Repository>Data Dictionary>Node Template;
(3) add a property to those kind of templates, the property could be "valueinjson"
(4) user to create files based on the templates
(5) after the file edited and submitted, an additional action will be executed to get the json string from the specific cell and set it to the "valueinjason" property.
(6) get the JSON string for further process, for example, for sum-up.

The typical scenario is the expense reimbursement application: application form (based on a template) submission; leave-process follow-up; summarizing and reporting.


My questions are as below:
a. in step 5, how to get the cell value from an Excel file in alfresco?
b. how about this solution, are there any better solutions without much coding?


Thanks in advance!

[jpotts]

This isn't possible without some minor coding work. I think a custom action that knows how to extract an arbitrary cell value out of a spreadsheet and store it in a property on the node would be a useful action.

I think this would take someone already familiar with creating custom actions less than half a day (easily) to code.

Once created, you could set up rules on your folder to invoke the action and you could reuse it on any folder in the repository without getting a developer involved.

Jeff

[andy2_0]

Jeff, thanks for your response!