Is there any components of flex that render the excel in flex?
I want to render the excel with excel functions, excel formatting, excel Formulas, etc. in flex. And also wants to perform actions on that excel row and column, like applying formulas, formatting text, insert function etc. in flex version 4.6.
There is no ready-library for this. You would have to develop this by building on top of Flex's DataGrid. This is a huge project. You have to ask yourself if it is reasonable to embark on such a project, given that Flex will no longer work in any browser when Flash is retired in 2020.
In the javascript world you will find many options for 'Excel-like' grids.
Related
Our users want to copy and paste some rows from an Excel spreadsheet, or a chart generated in Excel, into a text box within a Flex application.
It would be ok for it not to be fully functional, like an ActiveX object, embedded in the flex app. If it converted it to a static image, that would be fine. But I don't know of any Flex component that supports this.
No, this can't be done. What a shame. Now I am sad.
I'm trying to understand if it is possible to generate complex PDF files with Flex.
By complex I mean add images, styled text (font-family, weight, columns) layout elements with large degree of control and so on.
I was looking at AlivePDF library but cannot understand if it can handle more complicated PDF generation than plain text.
Thank you.
AlivePDF is your best bet. It's also open source, so you can add more features on it if it doesn't do everything you want for your 'complex' pdf.
Other than that, you'll have to look into server side PDF generation. I know Adobe Livecycle has a pdf generator and I'm sure there's other solutions out there.
Also, where do you start if you want to create a complete Flex 4 skin? Is there a list of all the "pieces" (component parts) you need to create graphics for somewhere, or some complete, example skins out there to use as a template? And do your skins render correctly in Flash Builder Design View? (including embedded fonts)
Most people will point you to Flash Catalyst, but the last time I looked it was not all-inclusive in terms of creating a complete skin/theme, not to mention other issues inherent to 1.0 software. I start by copying the default skin files and modifying them, as well as creating a new CSS file based on the defaults.css file that comes with the SDK. The trickier part is that not all components (Tree, DataGrid, DateChooser, ColorPicker, etc) are available as Spark components, which means to have a complete skin/theme you need to create a bunch of mx skins as well. Bottom line: If you are serious about doing this properly, you'll need to spend a lot of time understanding defaults.css and the skin classes it refers to.
To answer your original question, my personal workflow is to create a mockup of the skin in OmniGraffle, then use that as a guide to modify copies of the default skin files (look in spark.skins, and mx.spark.skins) by manipulating the mxml directly (as opposed to using a graphical tool such as Illustrator or Catalyst.)
Hope that helps.
Basically, you have many options when skinning Flex 4 apps :
Using "general" styles (chromeColor, selectionColor, focusColor, ...). This is usually called "Styling" instead of Skinning because you only change the overall look of the application. It's by far the easiest way to change the appareance of your application quickly without knowing anything about FXG, MXMLG, ... The drawback is it will still look like a Flex app, but with different colors/fonts
Using Adobe tools to produce FXG files. These tools can be Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash CS5. You design each of the spark component with these tools and export the result in .fxg format. FXG is great because it's optimized, but you can't use things such as Data Binding in it
Write your skin in MXMLG , by hand (starting from scratch or copying the default spark skin) or with the help of Flash Catalyst. Catalyst can take your Illustrator or Photoshop design and convert it to MXMLG. Experience shows it's still painfull, even with the last version. And you often end up doing things like this.
In our team, there is no such thing like designer/developer workflow with Flash Catalyst. The next version looks better but it's still far from what Microsoft is doing with Visual Studio/Blend.
That being said, the new Spark architecture is awesome. Skinning is much easier, flexible and readable. With this architecture, a developer codes the component and the designer skins it only by knowing the contract (skinparts, skinstates, data)
This also true for views if you use the Presentation Model pattern.
There is no "template" skins as the one available in Flex 3 because skinning doesn't use symbol anymore. What could be done though is a Flex 4 style explorer.
A final word, it has already been said here, but don't forget that with the current version (4.1), there is no spark equivalent for all of the components, so you will still use Flex 3 skinning techniques for components such as DataGrid, Tree, ...
This is where I normally "start"
http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inproduct/sdk/explorer/explorer.html
Once I figure out what components I have to skin, and I can't change what I want to change in Flex with CSS, then I go into Flash and start breaking the components apart and tweaking them.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/skins_styles.html
(Also, I've never had anything render "correctly" in design view)
Im in the verge of starting a new RIA development. We've been using Flex/Flash for the last 2 years but we were considering using a more OS approach so we though giving JavaFX a try since it seams the only solid option available. However after a couple of days of research we found out that there is not such thing as a datagrid for it, at least not in the core API. For those unfamiliar with Flex, a Datagrid is a component that allows you to display a collection of data in column-row layout (much like a HTML Table on steroids). The beauty of it is that you only need to worry about the data itself as the component does pretty much the rest (sorting, column dragging, etc).
Im afraid to ask... but is there something slightly similar for JavaFX?
We require nothing as fancy as Flex Datagrids/AdvancedDatagrids, we only require a easy, straight forward way to display grids of data that are able to have a little of interaction like clicking, sorting and that are able to display images, buttons, etc. without having to download a ton of different jars.
If there isn´t something out there... This would be a shot in the back of the head to the idea of giving javaFx the chance to compete with flash on our project (which is sad).
I really cant believe the SUN people didnt include something like this on the core API...
There is currently no datagrid you can use JTable for that. Such a thing should be available in the next release of JavaFX I think. See my answer here for more information about available JTable implementations. You mentioned the JFXtras project with that you are able to embed those Swing components into JavaFX.
There are external companies selling such a component. E.g. do a web search or look here
For apache pivot you should ask them directly for the pros and cons; they are very responsive and honest.
We have a requirement to increase the functionality of a grid we are using to edit on our webapp, and our manager keeps citing Excel as the perfect example for a data grid :/ He still doesn't really get that a Spreadsheet like control doesn't exist out of the box, but I thought I'd do a bit of searching nonetheless.
I've found a couple of products on Google, but was wondering if anyone else has any feedback around any such controls (obviously the cheaper or ahem freer the better)
EDIT We do currently have the Telerik controls, but what the 'current' requirement is, is a control that can copy and paste (e.g) 3 cells from one row and paste them on another, the row by row editing of Telerik doesn't really cut it. We are currently in competition with an 'Excel' based solution, which is always a nightmare in winning users around, who always prefer flexibility to structure
Update: with Silverlight fast approaching, maybe you can use a real excel control.
Devexpress has a powerful grid control for both web and windows. It is not free and I guess nothing really matches Excel. But once the users started using it, they wanted every app with it. Check these videos especially the data grouping one.
You may consider 3rd party tools of native Excel functionality. There are most buzzed on the forums:
Aspose Excel Cells
ComponentOne XLS for .NET
Or Excel Jetcell .NET.
This may not be directly related to your question, but on the server side have you considered what operations you will need to perform that will mimic Excel? You may want to check out SpreadsheetGear which will give you complete macro functionality.
They have new charting features that I haven't used yet, but they are supposed to work with Asp.net.