Convert CSV to Excel Windows Phone 8 - excel

Question

with windows phone 8 I need to be able to open a CSV file in Excel using C#. Their is an app on the market now called Excel Extensions that converts the csv file locally.
I have tired converting the CSV file using open office XML but that didn't work. and I want to do it locally so no web services.
Anyone know how I can convert the CSV file to Excel on the Windows Phone 8 platform?

Answer 1

THEORY
You have a two distinct options: (1) doing most of the work on the WP8 client (2) or doing most of the work on a remote server.
For option #2 of using a remote server: Expose a WCF service that takes in the CSV file, parses the CSV to find its logical 2D table structure, use ClosedXML to save a new XLSX file and return that to the client. This option is the most straightforward but also requires network connectivity and a hosted server.
For option #1 of not using a remote server: read the CSV file, copy the CSV data into to an XLSX file, save the XLSX into IsoStore and launch excel with that file. I've written about this topic in the past # How can we create, write and read an excel file for Windows Phone 8
One thing you'll have to do quite a lot of work is writing a XLSX file in pure WP7 C#. You'll either have to convert 3rd party libraries that write XLSX to support WP7/WP8, or convert simple end-to-end C# code samples to WP7/WP8. Both aren't simple. Converting ClosedXML is possible but DocumentFormat.OpenXml's dependency on WPF's WindowsCore is a problem. Another option is to write your own OpenXML C# implementation like Chris Klug did here for Word OpenXML on Silverlight and was ported to WP7 later on. The key is using OpenXML specification for your advantage.
LIVE CODE SAMPLE
For example, looking at Chris Klug's Silverlight Excel OpenXML article it's possible to take his code for Ag.OpenXML and OpenXML.Silverlight.Spreadsheet port those to WP8 and then simply invoke them. I did just that. Here's how to get that experimental source code and get started:
1) Download and unzip # http://JustinAngel.net/Storage/OpenXML.Silverlight.Spreadsheet.WP8.zip
2) Add a reference to the csproj, or to the DLLs OpenXML.Silverlight.Spreadsheet.WP8.dll & SharpZipLib.dll from "OpenXML.Silverlight.Spreadsheet.WP8\Bin\Debug".
3) Add the following code snippet that saves a SpreedsheetDocument file into your app's WP8 IsoStore and then launches it in Word using WP8 app2app file associations.
private async void SaveXlsxToIsoStoreAndLaunchInExcel(SpreadsheetDocument doc)
{
using (var isoStore = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
if (isoStore.FileExists("myFile.xlsx"))
isoStore.DeleteFile("myFile.xlsx");
using (var s = isoStore.CreateFile("myFile.xlsx"))
using (IStreamProvider storage = new ZipStreamProvider(s))
{
doc.Save(storage);
}
Launcher.LaunchFileAsync(
await ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.GetFileAsync("myFile.xlsx"));
}
}
4) Invoke the above code snippet with Chris's sample document:
private async void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SpreadsheetDocument doc = new SpreadsheetDocument();
doc.ApplicationName = "SilverSpreadsheet";
doc.Creator = "Chris Klug";
doc.Company = "Intergen";
SharedStringDefinition str1 = doc.Workbook.SharedStrings.AddString("Column 1");
SharedStringDefinition str2 = doc.Workbook.SharedStrings.AddString("Column 2");
SharedStringDefinition str3 = doc.Workbook.SharedStrings.AddString("Column 3");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[0].Cells[0].SetValue(str1);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[0].Cells[1].SetValue(str2);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[0].Cells[2].SetValue(str3);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[1].Cells[0].SetValue("Value 1");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[1].Cells[1].SetValue(1);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[1].Cells[2].SetValue(1001);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[2].Cells[0].SetValue("Value 2");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[2].Cells[1].SetValue(2);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[2].Cells[2].SetValue(1002);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[3].Cells[0].SetValue("Value 3");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[3].Cells[1].SetValue(3);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[3].Cells[2].SetValue(1003);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[4].Cells[0].SetValue("Value 4");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[4].Cells[1].SetValue(4);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[4].Cells[2].SetValue(1004);
TablePart table = doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.AddTable("My Table", "My Table", doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[0].Cells[0], doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[4].Cells[2]);
table.TableColumns[0].Name = str1.String;
table.TableColumns[1].Name = str2.String;
table.TableColumns[2].Name = str3.String;
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.AddColumnSizeDefinition(0, 2, 20);
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[5].Cells[1].SetValue("Sum:");
doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[5].Cells[2].Formula = "SUM(" + doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[1].Cells[2].CellName + ":" + doc.Workbook.Sheets[0].Sheet.Rows[4].Cells[2].CellName + ")";
SaveXlsxToIsoStoreAndLaunchInExcel(doc);
}
5) When running this code snippet we can see the following warning popup and then the excel spreadsheet. Feel free to improve upon my hasty Silverlight-->WP8 port and remove that warning.