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Rust + Boa

In a production application, it is strongly recommended to use a binding for a more performant engine like v8

Boa is a JavaScript engine written in Rust.

SheetJS is a JavaScript library for reading and writing data from spreadsheets.

The "Complete Example" section creates a command-line tool for reading data from spreadsheets and generating CSV rows.

Integration Details

Initialize Boa

A JS context can be constructed in one line:

use boa_engine::Context;

/* initialize */
let context = &mut Context::default();

The following helper function evaluates strings as JS code:

use std::string::String;
use boa_engine::{Context, Source, JsError};

/* simple wrapper to evaluate code snippets */
fn eval_code(c: &mut Context, code: &str) -> Result<String, JsError> {
let src = Source::from_bytes(code);
match c.eval(src) {
Ok(res) => { return Ok(res.to_string(c).unwrap().to_std_string_escaped()); }
Err(e) => { return Err(e); }
};
}

Load SheetJS Scripts

The SheetJS Standalone scripts can be parsed and evaluated in a Boa context.

Boa provides a special helper to read source code from a path:

use std::path::Path;
use std::string::String;
use boa_engine::{js_string, Context, Source, JsError};

/* simple wrapper to evaluate an entire script file */
fn eval_file(c: &mut Context, path: &str) -> Result<String, JsError> {
let src = Source::from_filepath(Path::new(path)).unwrap();
match c.eval(src) {
Ok(res) => { return Ok(res.to_string(c).unwrap().to_std_string_escaped()); }
Err(e) => { return Err(e); }
};
}

// ...
/* load library */
match eval_file(context, "./xlsx.full.min.js") {
Ok(_res) => {}
Err(e) => { return eprintln!("Uncaught {e}"); }
}

To confirm the library is loaded, XLSX.version can be inspected:

  /* get version string */
match eval_code(context, "XLSX.version") {
Ok(res) => { println!( "SheetJS library version {}", res); }
Err(e) => { return eprintln!("Uncaught {e}"); }
}

Reading Files

Boa supports ArrayBuffer natively. This snippet reads data from a file into Vec<u8> and stores the data as an ArrayBuffer in global scope:

  /* read file */
let data: Vec<u8> = fs::read("pres.xlsx").unwrap();
let array: JsArrayBuffer = JsArrayBuffer::from_byte_block(data, context).unwrap();
let attrs = Attribute::WRITABLE | Attribute::ENUMERABLE | Attribute::CONFIGURABLE;
context.register_global_property(js_string!("buf"), array, attrs);

/* parse with SheetJS */
match eval_code(context, "void (globalThis.wb = XLSX.read(buf))") {
Ok(_res) => { }
Err(e) => { return eprintln!("Uncaught {e}"); }
}

wb will be a variable in the JS environment that can be inspected using the various SheetJS API functions.

Complete Example

Tested Deployments

This demo was tested in the following deployments:

ArchitectureBoaDate
darwin-x640.18.02024-03-15
darwin-arm0.17.32023-10-20
win10-x640.17.32024-03-04
win11-arm0.17.32023-12-01
linux-x640.18.02024-03-21
linux-arm0.17.32023-12-01

1) Create a new project:

cargo new sheetjs-boa
cd sheetjs-boa
cargo run

2) Add the boa_engine crate:

cargo add boa_engine

3) Download the SheetJS Standalone script and move to the project directory:

curl -LO https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-0.20.1/package/dist/xlsx.full.min.js

4) Download main.rs and replace src/main.rs:

curl -L -o src/main.rs https://docs.sheetjs.com/boa/main.rs

5) Download the test file and run:

curl -LO https://sheetjs.com/pres.xlsx
cargo run --release

After a short wait, the contents will be displayed in CSV form.

The default debug build is not optimized and can elicit stack overflow errors. It is strongly encouraged to use --release when possible.