The Export Infrastructure is designed to be a middle tier structure that sits between an export library and server control. Currently it has only one renderer - for binary XLS (BIFF) files. Although it has been used internally for RadGrid, it is in fact independent and could be used in a wide range of scenarios. For example:

• for generating a binary XLS file on-the-fly

• for implementing XLS export for your own custom controls and/or Telerik controls that doesn't support export to Excel out-of-the-box

• for direct manipulation of the output generated by controls that uses it internally (RadGrid)

The core structure is very simple and easy to use. Due to the fact that its building blocks are familiar elements like Table, Column, Row, Cell, etc everyone can take advantage of its features without reading bulky documentations and most importantly, the developer doesn't need to know how the endpoint (the export library) actually works and therefore he also doesn't need to think of its peculiarities and limitations.

Note
Cell, Column, and Row indices start from 1.

Cell

Column

Row

Table

ExportStructure

ExportStyle

Below, you can find some examples demonstrating how you could use the export infrastructure. Note that there is no need to create Row and Column objects except if you need to set row/column-specific properties like width/height for example.

Using the Export Infrastructure - Example 1

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

xls.ExportStructure structure = new xls.ExportStructure();
xls.Table table = new xls.Table("Sheet1");
table.Rows[1].Height = 20;
table.Cells[1, 1].Value = 1.2;
structure.Tables.Add(table);

CopyVB.NET

Dim [structure] As New xls.ExportStructure()
Dim table As New xls.Table("Sheet1")
table.Rows(1).Height = 20
table.Cells(1, 1).Value = 1.2
[structure].Tables.Add(table)

Using the Export Infrastructure - Example 2

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

xls.ExportStructure structure2 = new xls.ExportStructure();
xls.Table table2 = new xls.Table("S1");
table2.Cells["A5"].Value = "Wine";
xls.Cell b2Cell = table2.Cells["B2"];
b2Cell.Value = "White";
b2Cell.Style.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
structure2.Tables.Add(table2);

CopyVB.NET

Dim structure2 As New xls.ExportStructure()
Dim table2 As New xls.Table("S1")
table2.Cells("A5").Value = "Wine"
Dim b2Cell As xls.Cell = table2.Cells("B2")
b2Cell.Value = "White"
b2Cell.Style.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue
structure2.Tables.Add(table2)

ShiftRowsDown method gives you the opportunity to insert new rows at the chosen position. The first argument of the method is the start row index, and the second argument is the number of the new rows which would be inserted. A possible use case is when the user wants to insert a custom header above the exported RadGrid, the customer could use this method to shift the rows down, up to the desired point. Although it is a part of the Export Infrastructure API, it is mostly suitable when exporting from RadGrid.

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

Telerik.Web.UI.ExportInfrastructure.Table tbl = e.ExportStructure.Tables[0];
tbl.ShiftRowsDown(2, 5);

CopyVB.NET

Dim tbl As Telerik.Web.UI.ExportInfrastructure.Table = e.ExportStructure.Tables(0)
tbl.ShiftRowsDown(2, 5)

As mentioned in the beginning of this topic, at this point there is only one renderer available. You could use it to generate a XLS file from a given structure. Simply create an instance of the XlsBiffRenderer class, provide a reference to the ExportStructure object and then invoke the Render method. When executed, it will return a byte array that could be either saved in a file or sent to the client via the Response object.

Using the XlsBiffRenderer

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

XlsBiffRenderer renderer = new XlsBiffRenderer(structure);
byte[] renderedBytes = renderer.Render();

CopyVB.NET

Dim renderer As New XlsBiffRenderer([structure])
Dim renderedBytes As Byte() = renderer.Render()

From Q3 2012 we provide Image support when using the Export Infrastructure. You just need instantiate the ExportStructure class, and then insert the image in a cell of your choice inside the table.

In the InsertImage method you should pass the cell or range of cells where the image will be located and the image path. Both relative and absolute paths are supported. It is also possible to create a new Image object directly and then add it to the Images collection of the Table object. You can specify a third boolean argument, indicating whether the image should be auto-sized to fit the cell(s) which hold it.

The method has the following overloads:

• void InsertImage(Range range, string imageUrl)

• void InsertImage(Range range, byte[] imageData)

• void InsertImage(Cell cell, string imageUrl)

• void InsertImage(Cell cell, string imageUrl, bool autoSize)

• void InsertImage(Cell cell, byte[] imageData)

• void InsertImage(Cell cell, byte[] imageData, bool autoSize)

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

ExportStructure exportStructure = new ExportStructure();
Telerik.Web.UI.ExportInfrastructure.Table table = new Telerik.Web.UI.ExportInfrastructure.Table("Table1");
table.InsertImage(new Range("A1", "B2"), "Image.png");
exportStructure.Tables.Add(table);

CopyVB.NET

Dim exportStructure As New ExportStructure()
Dim table As New Telerik.Web.UI.ExportInfrastructure.Table("Table1")
table.InsertImage(New Range("A1", "B2"), "Image.png")
exportStructure.Tables.Add(table)

Note
Automatic resizing is supported only when the image is inserted within a single cell (range is not supported).

• No hierarchy support

• No grouping support

• No automatic column/row resizing