Playframework Excel file generation - excel

Question

I've installed excel module in order to generate reports from datas recorded by my application into database.
It works fine : i can create report simply by clicking on a link into my main page and render into excel template.
But i'd rather generate excel file periodically (using a job) and save it into a shared folder, and that without any human action (so not by clicking on a link).
It's like I want to trigger the associated controller to render into my template automatically.
Does anyone got any tips on it for me?

Answer 1

So the problem is you can't pass some parameters into the job, or...?
Using something like this just doesn't work?
#On("0 45 4-23 ? * MON-FRI")
public class ExcelJob extends Job {
public void doJob() {
// generate excel
}
}
I wrote my own Excel generator using JExcel, and I use it for scheduled generation without a problem. It also doesn't require a template, because the report structure is derived from annotations. This is roughly 20 lines of code - you may want to try it for yourself.

Answer 2

This is really rough and lacks good user feedback, but gives you the idea...
Excel generator - not Play-specific in any way
public class ExcelGenerator
{
public void generateReport(Function successCallback,
Function failureCallback)
{
try
{
byte[] report = // generate your report somehow
successCallback.execute(report);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
failureCallback.execute(e.getMessage());
}
}
}
A function interface for callbacks (very basic)
public interface Function
{
public void execute(Object... args);
}
Your Play controller
public class MyController extends Controller
{
public static void index()
{
render();
}
public static void createReport()
{
Function failureCallback = new Function()
{
public void execute(Object... args)
{
flash.error(args[0]);
indxe();
}
};
Function successCallback = new Function()
{
public void execute(Object... args)
{
renderBinary((byte[])args[0]);
}
};
ExcelGenerator excelGenerator = new ExcelGenerator();
excelGenerator.generateReport(successCallback,
failureCallback);
}
}
Finally, re-use the ExcelGenerator from your job
public class MyJob extends Job
{
public void doJob()
{
Function failureCallback = new Function()
{
public void execute(Object... args)
{
Logger.error(args[0]);
}
}
Function successCallback = new Function()
{
public void execute(Object... args)
{
byte[] report = (byte[])args[0];
// write report to disk
}
}
ExcelGenerator excelGenerator = new ExcelGenerator();
excelGenerator.generateReport(successCallback,
failureCallback);
}
}
You'll still need to write your own report generator, or refactor the existing excel module to provide what you need.

Answer 3

So if you want to run and manage several jobs you can do something like this
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
SendingMessageJob sendingMessageJob = new SendingMessageJob();
promises.add(sendingMessageJob.now());
}
boolean allDone = false;
while (!allDone) {
allDone = true;
for (F.Promise promise : promises) {
if (!promise.isDone()) {
allDone = false;
break;
}
}
}
// when arrive here all jobs have finished their process

Answer 4

You can check the Play documentation, specifically the section on jobs, where you'll see examples on how to create automatically triggered methods. This should solve your issue.
EDIT (update on comment):
You can manually trigger a job, do this:
new MyExcelGeneratorJob().doJob();
Thing is, Play is stateless, so the job should use data from the database. Instead of trying to pass parameters from your request into the Job (won't work) try to store that data in a staging area in the database that the job loads and processes to generate the excel.