How can I convert/save excel file to pdf? I'm using java play framework to generate some excel files and now the requirement changes to pdf. I don't want to recode everything.
Is there a way to convert to pdf?
The excel files I'm generating are from a template; I read the excel template file, write changes, and save as new excel file. That way, the template is unchanged. It contains border, image, and other formatting.
You would need the following Java libraries and associated JAR files for the program to work. POI v3.8 iText v5.3.4
Try this Example to convert XLS to PDF
The complete Java code that accepts Excel spreadsheet data as an input and transforms that to a PDF table data is provided below:
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.*;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.*;
import java.util.Iterator;
import com.itextpdf.text.*;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.*;
public class excel2pdf {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
FileInputStream input_document = new FileInputStream(new File("C:\\excel_to_pdf.xls"));
// Read workbook into HSSFWorkbook
HSSFWorkbook my_xls_workbook = new HSSFWorkbook(input_document);
// Read worksheet into HSSFSheet
HSSFSheet my_worksheet = my_xls_workbook.getSheetAt(0);
// To iterate over the rows
Iterator<Row> rowIterator = my_worksheet.iterator();
//We will create output PDF document objects at this point
Document iText_xls_2_pdf = new Document();
PdfWriter.getInstance(iText_xls_2_pdf, new FileOutputStream("Excel2PDF_Output.pdf"));
iText_xls_2_pdf.open();
//we have two columns in the Excel sheet, so we create a PDF table with two columns
//Note: There are ways to make this dynamic in nature, if you want to.
PdfPTable my_table = new PdfPTable(2);
//We will use the object below to dynamically add new data to the table
PdfPCell table_cell;
//Loop through rows.
while(rowIterator.hasNext()) {
Row row = rowIterator.next();
Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
while(cellIterator.hasNext()) {
Cell cell = cellIterator.next(); //Fetch CELL
switch(cell.getCellType()) { //Identify CELL type
//you need to add more code here based on
//your requirement / transformations
case Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING:
//Push the data from Excel to PDF Cell
table_cell=new PdfPCell(new Phrase(cell.getStringCellValue()));
//feel free to move the code below to suit to your needs
my_table.addCell(table_cell);
break;
}
//next line
}
}
//Finally add the table to PDF document
iText_xls_2_pdf.add(my_table);
iText_xls_2_pdf.close();
//we created our pdf file..
input_document.close(); //close xls
}
}
i hope this will help you
The code from assylias above was very helpful to me in solving this problem. The answer from santhosh could be great if you don't care about the resulting PDF looking exactly like your excel pdf export would look. However, if you are, say, filling out an excel template using Apache POI an then trying to export that while preserving its look and not writing a ton of code in iText just to try to get close to that look, then the VBS option is quite nice.
I'll share a Java version of the kotlin assylias has above in case that helps anyone. All credit to assylias for the general form of the solution.
try {
//create a temporary file and grab the path for it
Path tempScript = Files.createTempFile("script", ".vbs");
//read all the lines of the .vbs script into memory as a list
//here we pull from the resources of a Gradle build, where the vbs script is stored
System.out.println("Path for vbs script is: '" + Main.class.getResource("xl2pdf.vbs").toString().substring(6) + "'");
List<String> script = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(Main.class.getResource("xl2pdf.vbs").toString().substring(6)));
// append test.xlsm for file name. savePath was passed to this function
String templateFile = savePath + "\\test.xlsm";
templateFile = templateFile.replace("\\", "\\\\");
String pdfFile = savePath + "\\test.pdf";
pdfFile = pdfFile.replace("\\", "\\\\");
System.out.println("templateFile is: " + templateFile);
System.out.println("pdfFile is: " + pdfFile);
//replace the placeholders in the vbs script with the chosen file paths
for (int i = 0; i < script.size(); i++) {
script.set(i, script.get(i).replaceAll("XL_FILE", templateFile));
script.set(i, script.get(i).replaceAll("PDF_FILE", pdfFile));
System.out.println("Line " + i + " is: " + script.get(i));
}
//write the modified code to the temporary script
Files.write(tempScript, script);
//create a processBuilder for starting an operating system process
ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("wscript", tempScript.toString());
//start the process on the operating system
Process process = pb.start();
//tell the process how long to wait for timeout
Boolean success = process.waitFor(timeout, minutes);
if(!success) {
System.out.println("Error: Could not print PDF within " + timeout + minutes);
} else {
System.out.println("Process to run visual basic script for pdf conversion succeeded.");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
Alert saveAsPdfAlert = new Alert(AlertType.ERROR);
saveAsPdfAlert.setTitle("ERROR: Error converting to pdf.");
saveAsPdfAlert.setHeaderText("Exception message is:");
saveAsPdfAlert.setContentText(e.getMessage());
saveAsPdfAlert.showAndWait();
}
Option Explicit
Dim objExcel, strExcelPath, objSheet
strExcelPath = "XL_FILE"
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.WorkBooks.Open strExcelPath
Set objSheet = objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
objSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat 0, "PDF_FILE",0, 1, 0, , , 0
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close
objExcel.Application.Quit
An alternative is to use a VB script and call it from Java.
Example:
Option Explicit
Dim objExcel, strExcelPath, objSheet
strExcelPath = "$XL_FILE"
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.WorkBooks.Open strExcelPath
Set objSheet = objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
objSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat 0, "$PDF_FILE",0, 1, 0, , , 0
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close
objExcel.Application.Quit
fun xl2pdf(xlFile: Path, pdfFile: Path, timeout: Long = 1, timeUnit: TimeUnit = TimeUnit.MINUTES) {
val tempScript = Files.createTempFile("script", ".vbs")
val script = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("xl2pdf.vbs"))
.map { it.replace("\$XL_FILE", "$xlFile") }
.map { it.replace("\$PDF_FILE", "$pdfFile") }
Files.write(tempScript, script)
try {
val pb = ProcessBuilder("wscript", tempScript.toString())
val process = pb.start()
val success = process.waitFor(timeout, timeUnit)
if (!success) LOG.error("Could not print PDF within $timeout $timeUnit")
} catch (e: IOException) {
LOG.error("Error while printing Excel file to PDF", e)
}
}
<repository>
<id>com.e-iceblue</id>
<name>e-iceblue</name>
<url>http://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
</repository>
<dependency>
<groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
<artifactId>spire.xls.free</artifactId>
<version>5.1.0</version>
</dependency>
import com.spire.xls.FileFormat;
import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
import java.io.File;
public class EIceblueConverter {
public static void main(String[] args) {
for (Sources xls : Sources.values()) {
if (isFileExists(xls)) convert(xls);
}
}
private static boolean isFileExists(Sources xls) {
File file = new File(xls.getPath());
return file.exists() && file.isFile();
}
private static void convert(Sources xls) {
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
workbook.loadFromFile(xls.getPath());
workbook.getConverterSetting().setSheetFitToPage(true);
workbook.saveToFile(Util.getOutputPath(xls.getPath()), FileFormat.PDF);
}
}
Before converting you should edit view area in file.xls*
... and more convertors, including the interesting solution: use libre office as converter .xls* to .pdf. (do test it in src/main/java/jodconverter/AppStarter.java)
Here is the full fledge working example
Dependencies :
compile 'com.itextpdf:itextpdf:5.5.13.2'
compile 'org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.0.0'
Java code:
import java.io.*;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.*;
import java.util.Iterator;
import com.itextpdf.text.*;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.*;
public class Excel2PDF {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Workbook my_xls_workbook = WorkbookFactory.create(new File("/Users/harshad/Desktop/excel.xlsx"));
Sheet my_worksheet = my_xls_workbook.getSheetAt(0);
short availableColumns = my_worksheet.getRow(0).getLastCellNum();
System.out.println("Available columns : " + availableColumns);
Iterator<Row> rowIterator = my_worksheet.iterator();
Document iText_xls_2_pdf = new Document();
PdfWriter.getInstance(iText_xls_2_pdf, new FileOutputStream("/Users/harshad/Desktop/excel.pdf"));
iText_xls_2_pdf.open();
PdfPTable my_table = new PdfPTable(availableColumns);
PdfPCell table_cell = null;
while (rowIterator.hasNext()) {
Row row = rowIterator.next();
Iterator<Cell> cellIterator = row.cellIterator();
while (cellIterator.hasNext()) {
Cell cell = cellIterator.next();
switch (cell.getCellType()) {
default:
try {
table_cell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(cell.getStringCellValue()));
} catch (IllegalStateException illegalStateException) {
//TODO: Need to handle exceptions for different type too
if (illegalStateException.getMessage().equals("Cannot get a STRING value from a NUMERIC cell")) {
table_cell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(String.valueOf(cell.getNumericCellValue())));
}
}
my_table.addCell(table_cell);
break;
}
}
}
iText_xls_2_pdf.add(my_table);
iText_xls_2_pdf.close();
my_xls_workbook.close();
}
}
