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Bundling Sheets with Browserify

Browserify is a module bundler.

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

This demo uses Browserify and SheetJS to export data. We'll explore how to add SheetJS to a site using Browserify and how to export data to spreadsheets.

This demo focuses on integration details with the Browserify bundler.

The demos follow the "Export Tutorial", which covers SheetJS library usage in more detail.

Tested Deployments

This demo was tested in the following environments:

BrowserifyDate
17.0.02024-04-13
16.5.22024-04-13
15.2.02024-04-13
14.5.02024-04-13
13.3.02024-04-13
12.0.22024-04-13
11.2.02024-04-13
10.2.62024-04-13
9.0.82024-04-13
8.1.32024-04-13
7.1.02024-04-13
6.3.42024-04-13
5.13.12024-04-13
4.2.32024-04-13
3.46.12024-04-13

Integration Details​

The "Frameworks" section covers installation with Yarn and other package managers.

After installing the SheetJS module in a Browserify project, require expressions can load relevant parts of the library.

var XLSX = require("xlsx");
// ... use XLSX ...

Browserify can also process require expressions in Web Worker scripts.

Complete Example​

  1. Initialize a new project:
mkdir sheetjs-browserify
cd sheetjs-browserify
npm init -y
  1. Install the tarball using a package manager:
yarn add https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-0.20.2/xlsx-0.20.2.tgz
  1. Save the following to index.js:
index.js
const { utils, version, writeFileXLSX } = require('xlsx');

document.getElementById("xport").addEventListener("click", function() {
  /* fetch JSON data and parse */
  var url = "https://docs.sheetjs.com/executive.json";
  fetch(url).then(function(res) { return res.json(); }).then(function(raw_data) {

    /* filter for the Presidents */
    var prez = raw_data.filter(function(row) { return row.terms.some(function(term) { return term.type === "prez"; }); });

    /* sort by first presidential term */
    prez.forEach(function(row) {
      row.start = row.terms.find(function(term) {
        return term.type === "prez";
      }).start
    });
    prez.sort(function(l,r) { return l.start.localeCompare(r.start); });

    /* flatten objects */
    var rows = prez.map(function(row) { return {
      name: row.name.first + " " + row.name.last,
      birthday: row.bio.birthday
    }; });

    /* generate worksheet and workbook */
    var worksheet = utils.json_to_sheet(rows);
    var workbook = utils.book_new();
    utils.book_append_sheet(workbook, worksheet, "Dates");

    /* fix headers */
    utils.sheet_add_aoa(worksheet, [["Name", "Birthday"]], { origin: "A1" });

    /* calculate column width */
    var max_width = rows.reduce(function(w, r) { return Math.max(w, r.name.length); }, 10);
    worksheet["!cols"] = [ { wch: max_width } ];

    /* create an XLSX file and try to save to Presidents.xlsx */
    writeFileXLSX(workbook, "Presidents.xlsx");
  });
});
  1. Bundle the scripts:
npx browserify index.js > index.min.js

Legacy browserify versions must use a local version. For version 3.46.1:

npm install --save [email protected]
./node_modules/.bin/browserify index.js > index.min.js
  1. Create a small HTML page that loads the script. Save to index.html:
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head></head>
  <body>
    <h1>SheetJS Presidents Demo</h1>
    <button id="xport">Click here to export</button>
    <script src="./index.min.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>
  1. Start a local HTTP server:
npx http-server .
  1. Load the displayed URL (typically http://localhost:8080/) in a web browser.

Click on "Click here to export" to generate a file.