Spreadsheet gem

Rails
1

Hello,

I am trying to use Spreadsheet gem to import some data in the db. I open
a xls as

member_file=Spreadsheet.open("#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/data/FAMILY-MEMBER.xls")

but after that when I try to open the file using Excel I get an error
that file is locked by another user for editing. Only way to release the
lock is to kill the rails server. And there is no method to close the
file in the gem. How do I solve this problem? ‘Roo’ also had the same
issue. Is there any gem which I can use to import/export the data from
excel which does not have these issues?

Thanks.

2

On Sep 2, 2012, at 4:16 PM, renu mehta wrote:

file in the gem. How do I solve this problem? ‘Roo’ also had the same
issue. Is there any gem which I can use to import/export the data from
excel which does not have these issues?

You won’t have this issue in production, since the XLS file will never
be opened by the server, I’m betting. You could simply duplicate the
file before you open it, or you could look into the gem source and see
if there’s a missing your_file.close method somewhere.

Walter

3

Walter D. wrote in post #1074366:

On Sep 2, 2012, at 4:16 PM, renu mehta wrote:

file in the gem. How do I solve this problem? ‘Roo’ also had the same
issue. Is there any gem which I can use to import/export the data from
excel which does not have these issues?

You won’t have this issue in production, since the XLS file will never
be opened by the server, I’m betting. You could simply duplicate the
file before you open it, or you could look into the gem source and see
if there’s a missing your_file.close method somewhere.

Walter

But won’t it cause a problem next time I want to upload the updated xls
to the server and then try to import it. Every week a user will upload a
xls with the same name and app has to update the db based on new data.
How will I be able to upload and try to read it again with the same name
on server if file is not released for editing? I am using the
‘Spreadsheet’ gem for import of data. Is there any other gem available
which may be better option for this functionality?

4

On Sep 2, 2012, at 9:01 PM, renu mehta wrote:

if there’s a missing your_file.close method somewhere.

Walter

But won’t it cause a problem next time I want to upload the updated xls
to the server and then try to import it. Every week a user will upload a
xls with the same name and app has to update the db based on new data.
How will I be able to upload and try to read it again with the same name
on server if file is not released for editing? I am using the
‘Spreadsheet’ gem for import of data. Is there any other gem available
which may be better option for this functionality?

I don’t believe that any application outside of Excel is going to behave
this way. Try it on a real server and see what happens. I think you can
replace the file right out from under the process, then tell it to
re-import, and you should be good. But test it out to be sure. Just
don’t take anything Excel has to say about this as meaningful in the
context of your production server.

If this does prove to be a problem, then just rename the file on the
server as you save it. Append the current time in milliseconds or
something similar to cause it to have an unique name on disk. Or delete
the file on your server after you have read it into your database. You
won’t need it after you’ve parsed it into database records, after all.

Walter

5

Hi

Is there any other gem available

might be worth a look at this …

… imports active record models, including associations

started life as an Excel import tool for Spree but is now a generic
active
record import/export tool from Excel or CSV.

One caveat, Excel access is currently only via Jruby, but if that is not
available export from Excel to CSV and the csv import works identically.

You can also use it to generate excel/csv templates of your models,
making
it easier to map data back to your db schema

Cheers
tom

6

On Sunday, September 2, 2012 9:16:41 PM UTC+1, Ruby-Forum.com User
wrote:

that file is locked by another user for editing. Only way to release the
lock is to kill the rails server. And there is no method to close the
file in the gem. How do I solve this problem? ‘Roo’ also had the same
issue. Is there any gem which I can use to import/export the data from
excel which does not have these issues?

Have you tried using the block form?

Spreadsheet.open(path) do |workbook|
…
end

Fred