How complex are these spreadsheets? If all you need to do is upload some basic data, then have them save it as CSV and upload that into GAE. I'm assuming your spreadsheets are complex enough that you need them to actually be Microsoft Excel files.
Lior's response made me consider your actual use case and it sounds like it could be worthwhile for you to try using the Google Spreadsheets API. I had considered it but my spreadsheet needs are slightly different, and you can read about my decision here: http://stephenhuey.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/docxgae/ Although I used the GaeVFS virtual file system in that blog post, you can actually do plenty of the typical file stuff in memory and just write out to the Blobstore. Basically, I needed my users to be able to download data in full-fledged Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and since the traditional Java libraries out there aren't supported on GAE, I chose to use Microsoft's xlsx format which is a zip file consisting of text files and images. In case that sounds terrible, note that I'm using FreeMarker to help me modify template XML files, and that does make things a little bit cleaner. So in a nutshell, you can work with bona fide Microsoft Excel files on GAE if you use the xlsx file format and not the older xls file format. - Stephen Huey On Mar 1, 1:14 am, Lior Harsat <lior.har...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Praseed, > > my application uses the google spreadsheet api for importing data. I > have learned the following lessons from it: > 1. performance is not great. the api runs over http and is limited to > GAE request timeout (5 to 10) seconds. on some cases a single request > exceed this time and you are required to handle these timeout (retry) > 2. API inconsistencies. The API is not that stable. some of the > examples posted on Google simply do not work. it could be very > frustrating. > 3. google spreadsheets are nice for low volume data. Handling masses > of data is difficult. copy paste is limited. limited formulas > (comparing to Excel) . very basic scripting support. you should really > play with it and verify that your end user won't get frustrated with > it. > 4. accessing the spreadsheet requires authentication. it may be an > overhead for your end users unless you handle it for them. > > Having said all of the above I still recommend it as it is free, > doesn't require leaving the google API realm, and will probably mature > over time. > you need to make a deep analysis of your requirement to make sure the > above limitation won't become showstoppers. > > Thanx, Lior > > On Feb 28, 6:41 pm, praseed <prase...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > New here. > > > My app requires users to upload spreadsheets. The server has to make > > the data available on a grid (GWT)..the user then makes changes if any > > and press "import".. This is when the data is stored in the data store > > in appropriate entities. > > > Questions . > > > If this is not GAE, i would have stored the uploaded file in the > > filesystem; used Apache POI to parse the file from a GWT-RPC service > > and return it to a GWT grid. Then, upon user selection, commit the > > data to persistence. Are there better (read: easier) ways to do this > > under GAE? Can I make use of the Spreadsheet Data API to do this > > instead? Do I need to store the file at all in that case? > > Is there something in the Google Docs Upload API I should be using? > > > Since I am already committed to GAE and GWT, I wanted to make things > > as simpler as it can be. If I can avoid other external > > libraries..great. > > > Thoughts? > > > Cheers > > praseed -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine for Java" group. To post to this group, send email to google-appengine-j...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-appengine-java+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java?hl=en.
