grunt-excel-as-json

Convert Excel files to JSON files

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.5 (soft requirement - task does not use any advanced Grunt features so any recent version should work but previous versions have not been tested).

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-excel-as-json --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-excel-as-json');

The "convertExcelToJson" task

Overview

Your Excel spreadsheet should contain a key row with JSON key paths and all remaining rows are values. You can transpose this organization and use a key column where all remaining columns are values. The JSON output is a list of keyed value rows/columns.

excel-as-json provides detailed instructions for configuring your Excel spreadsheets for use with this module.

Add a section named convertExcelToJson to your Gruntfile.

grunt.initConfig({
  // ...
  convertExcelToJson: {
    dist: {
      files: [
        {src: <excel_file1>, dst: <json_file1>, isColOriented: false},
        {src: <excel_file2>, dst: <json_file2>, isColOriented: true}
      ]
    },
    test: {
      files: [
        {src: <excel_file3>, dst: <json_file3>, isColOriented: true}
      ]
    },
  },
});

This is a Grunt MultiTask using the Files Array Format so you must have targets like 'dist:' or 'test:', but they can be any name you choose. Each files section may have multiple entries.

Files

files.src

Type: String

Path to the Excel file data source (xlsx only)

files.dst

Type: String

Path to the JSON output file

files.isColOriented

Type: Boolean
Default: true

Indicates whether objects in this Excel file are stored as columns or rows

Usage Examples

Standard Use

You have a static site project with a data directory containing Excel spreadsheets with pricing and item details. Your static site needs this data in JSON form and reads it from public/data. Every time you grunt dist, you want to refresh the JSON files.

This configuration converts the pricing data (row oriented), and item details (col oriented) to json files in public/data. Note that the row oriented Excel spreadsheet (pricing.xlsx) omits isColOriented - using the default of false.

grunt.initConfig({
  convertExcelToJson: {
    dist: {
      files: [
    	 {src: 'data/pricing.xlsx', dst: 'public/data/pricing.json'},
    	 {src: 'data/item1.xlsx', dst: 'public/data/item1.json', isColOriented: true}
      ]
    }
  }
});

TODO

• Add code coverage integration for coveralls or codecov

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Release History

(Nothing yet)