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Joomla Excel Reader

By Roel Gillesen

How to show Excel-files in Joomla!

This article explains how to show Excel files in Joomla!. With excel files, we refer to files with the extension 'xls'. It does not explain how to install Jumi. We assume you already did that yourself. Jumi can be downloaded from the Joomla! extensions site or the Jumi homepage.

The Joomla! wrapper does not require any installation or configuration, so this is the easiest way.

This article describes two ways to show excel files.

show them via Jumi
show them via the Joomla! wrapper

Joomla! configuration

Joomla! 1.5.10 (of later)
Jumi 2.0.3 full package
Excel Reader for PHP

Installation and configuration

The following files are packaged as a component as most people don't have any influence on the PHP server of their host.

The component consists of:

Installation

The installation is very straightforward.

Steps

Unzip the file to a temporary folder on your PC
Copy or upload the folder (com_phpExcelReader) to '/components/' of your Joomla! installation.
Set the access rights on the folder (755 for the folder and 644 for the files)

Configuration withe the Joomla! Wrapper

This is the most simple way. To make this work, we only have to create a wrapper URL.

Steps

Go to the menu where you want to have the link and choose "New" and go to 'Internal link / wrapper / wrapper'.
Choose a title for your new menu and enter the parameters on the right.
In this example we use 'http://www.mywebsite.nl/components/com_phpExcelReader/readFile.php'
Edit the filename inside the file readFile.php. (the default uses 'cms.xls')
Check scrollbars to 'yes'
Set width to '100%'
Set height to your preferences e.g. '500'
Save your configuration.

When we now follow this link, the excel file is opened within our own content area in Joomla!.
Advantages of this method are that you can scroll, specify the file and re-using your own template.

Example

Configuration via Jumi

This way is more configuration, but works fine too.
Unfortunately we don't have the option to specify the file to be opened.
We have to configure this hardcoded in the file itself.

Assumed is that you have configured Jumi to use the Joomla! root directory.
To check this, you can open the configuration at 'extensions/plugin management/jumi/'' and make sure that the option 'default absolute jumi path' is empty so it uses the Joomla! root.
When you need to use a different path for Jumi, make sure you change this path inside the files as well.

Steps:

Open 'components / Jumi' and choose 'New' in the menu
Enter a title
Enter the path to the file
In our case, because we use the Joomla! root path, it looks like 'components/com_phpExcelReader/readFile_jumi.php'
Jumi will add the rest of the path automatically.
Choose a menu where you want to create the link, choose 'New' and go to 'Internal link / Jumi' and enter a name for your menu item.
Enter the parameters on the right side of the Jumi link that we created in step 1 and 2.
Save your configuration.

When you want to use a different excel file with this solution, you have to edit the file 'readerExcel_jumi.php'.

Steps:

Open the file 'readFilel_jumi.php'
Go to line line 6. Here we see '$file_to_include="/components/com_phpexcelreader/cms.xls";'
Change this line to reflect the path of the file you want to use.
Note that this URL always starts from the Joomla! root.

Example