Report in Excel format
list Asif Iqbal
Hi Henrik Is it possible to add a feature to be able to create report in Excel format? My director was wondering if that is possible. Looking forward to migrate to hobbit when it releases. Thanks -- Asif Iqbal PGP Key: 0xE62693C5 KeyServer: pgp.mit.edu "...it said: Install Windows XP or better...so I installed Solaris..."
list Emmanuel Dreyfus
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Asif Iqbal <user-c8222abeff59@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Is it possible to add a feature to be able to create report in Excel format? My director was wondering if that is possible.
I'm not a hobbit expert, but I bet that would be difficult: Excel uses a proprietary format, which means that only MS is able to speak it correctly. Other projects speak the Excel format by reverse engineering it, and face the threat of getting incompatible at each new release. MS tends to break compatibility often in the Office suite because that's a good way to toss competitors (and moreover, it pushes customers to upgrade if they want to keep compatibe). You can export in tab separated values format (TSV) or comma separated values (CSV) and import that into Excel, though. -- Emmanuel Dreyfus Publicité subliminale: achetez ce livre! http://www.eyrolles.com/Informatique/Livre/9782212114638/livre-bsd.php user-69030d3a16d0@xymon.invalid
list Henrik Størner
Hi Asif,
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On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 07:42:47PM -0500, Asif Iqbal wrote:Is it possible to add a feature to be able to create report in Excel format? My director was wondering if that is possible.
Reporting in native Excel format is out of the question - it's way too complicated and proprietary a format. I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense. Importing XML data into Excel should be simple, although I must confess that I never touch Excel.
Looking forward to migrate to hobbit when it releases.
It's getting closer. Henrik
list Asif Iqbal
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On Tue, Jan 18, 2005 at 09:20:54AM, Henrik Stoerner wrote:
Hi Asif, On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 07:42:47PM -0500, Asif Iqbal wrote:Is it possible to add a feature to be able to create report in Excel format? My director was wondering if that is possible.Reporting in native Excel format is out of the question - it's way too complicated and proprietary a format. I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be
Sorry that is--CSV--what I meant
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to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense. Importing XML data into Excel should be simple, although I must
Excellent
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confess that I never touch Excel.Looking forward to migrate to hobbit when it releases.It's getting closer. Henrik
-- Asif Iqbal PGP Key: 0xE62693C5 KeyServer: pgp.mit.edu "...it said: Install Windows XP or better...so I installed Solaris..."
list Jeff Stoner
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On Tue, 2005-01-18 at 09:20 +0100, Henrik Stoerner wrote:
I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense.
Suggestion: make it modular! There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of formats out there. Do The Right Thing (tm) and simply make an API so others can tack on a report writer that outputs their favorite format. That way, you're not pulling your hair out trying to keep up with format changes, requests for new formats and such. Provide a basic report writer to get people started (to pull data out as an an example of writing a report writer). A text-delimited writer would be ideal, then people can output a comma/tab/pipe/slash/carrot/whatever delimited ASCII file to get started. Others can then add more, like an OpenOffice.org writer, GNUPlot, Postscript, PDF, HP OpenView, GNUCash (why not) or whatever their hearts desire -- --Jeff AIM/Yahoo: D0wnsp0ut
list John A. Milburn
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Stoner" <user-e519abf6e436@xymon.invalid> To: <user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid> Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 1:38 PM Subject: Re: [hobbit] Report in Excel format
On Tue, 2005-01-18 at 09:20 +0100, Henrik Stoerner wrote:I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense.Suggestion: make it modular! There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of formats out there. Do The Right Thing (tm) and simply make an API so others can tack on a report writer that outputs their favorite format. That way, you're not pulling your hair out trying to keep up with format changes, requests for new formats and such. Provide a basic report writer to get people started (to pull data out as an an example of writing a report writer). A text-delimited writer would be ideal, then people can output a comma/tab/pipe/slash/carrot/whatever delimited ASCII file to get started. Others can then add more, like an OpenOffice.org writer, GNUPlot, Postscript, PDF, HP OpenView, GNUCash (why not) or whatever their hearts desire -- --Jeff AIM/Yahoo: D0wnsp0ut
CSV format would provide data that anyone could use. Easily imported into any program. I am using Hobbit for realtime monitoring, but would like to be able to extract the SLA data for use by management for uptime reports. Details (history) would not be needed, just the uptime percentage for each device and test for the period selected. The it would be easy to report the tests that were important for each device (conn for routers, svcs for Citrix,etc.)
list Henrik Størner
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On Sat, Jan 22, 2005 at 02:38:28PM -0500, Jeff Stoner wrote:
On Tue, 2005-01-18 at 09:20 +0100, Henrik Stoerner wrote:I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense.Suggestion: make it modular! There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of formats out there. Do The Right Thing (tm) and simply make an API so others can tack on a report writer that outputs their favorite format.
This sounds "obviously correct", and it is a path that I've tried to follow in other parts of Hobbit; e.g. the way it is split into a fairly simple (stupid) daemon, and then a simple way of adding modules that act on the messages that arrive. Any ideas for how such an API should be ? What data should it make available ? Henrik
list Asif Iqbal
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On Tue, Jan 18, 2005 at 09:20:54AM, Henrik Stoerner wrote:
Hi Asif, On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 07:42:47PM -0500, Asif Iqbal wrote:Is it possible to add a feature to be able to create report in Excel format? My director was wondering if that is possible.Reporting in native Excel format is out of the question - it's way too complicated and proprietary a format. I've had some requests for generating reports in CSV (comma-separated values) format. That is one option; a more flexible solution would be to export the report data in an XML format - since everybody seems to
Any hint on how to generate the report in XML OR CSV format?
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be adopting XML as a universal data exchange format, I think that would make the most sense.
-- Asif Iqbal PGP Key: 0xE62693C5 KeyServer: pgp.mit.edu
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but
the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin