XSLX-Template NodeJS

This module provides a means of generating "real" Excel reports (i.e. not CSV files) in NodeJS applications.

The basic principle is this: You create a template in Excel. This can be formatted as you wish, contain formulae etc. In this file, you put placeholders using a specific syntax (see below). In code, you build a map of placeholders to values and then load the template, substitute the placeholders for the relevant values, and generate a new .xlsx file that you can then serve to the user.

Placeholders are inserted in cells in a spreadsheet. It does not matter how those cells are formatted, so e.g. it is OK to insert a placeholder (which is text content) into a cell formatted as a number or currecy or date, if you expect the placeholder to resolve to a number or currency or date.

Scalars

Simple placholders take the format ${name}. Here, name is the name of a key in the placeholders map. The value of this placholder here should be a scalar, i.e. not an array or object. The placeholder may appear on its own in a cell, or as part of a text string. For example:

| Extracted on: | ${extractDate} |

Tables

Finally, you can build tables made up of multiple rows. In this case, each placeholder should be prefixed by table: and contain both the name of the placeholder variable (a list of objects) and a key (in each object in the list). For example:

| Name                 | Age                 |

| ${table:people.name} | ${table:people.age} |

https://www.npmjs.com/package/xlsx-template