| .VTS - version info and conversion to .XLS [message #501266] |
Tue, 01 December 2009 16:45  |
 user
Messages: 296
Registered: July 2009 |
Senior Member |
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First, I should state that I'm a noob with no BIRT experience. I'm just
trying to solve a problem for a customer. And I've posted this on
Actuate's birt-exchange forum
I have a large number of .VTS files (200+) that need to be converted to
Excel. There is a need to manipulate the converted .VTS files in Excel
in a way that the app which reads the .VTS files cannot do. And the app
has no option to write Excel files.
Ideally, I would like to be able to write a program or script to accept
a list of of .VTS files and write out a corresponding set of .XLS files.
Any intersheet or interworkbook references to .VTS files can be fixed up
in Excel after the conversions.
Failing that, just reading the .VTS files into the Designer app and
saving them as .XLS files would be acceptable if the conversion was correct.
From what I've been able to ascertain, the eclipse version of BIRT
doesn't read the .VTS files, but instead only reads/writes files with
the following extensions
..rptdesign
..rptlibrary
..rpttemplate
..rptdocument
Based on the above, I'm assuming that the (long deprecated) .VTS file
format is proprietary to Actuate, and there is no way to access these
files using open source (eclipse BIRT) tools. A search of the eclipse
site for .VTS yielded no results.
I started out reverse engineering the .VTS file, as I could find no
documentation of the .VTS file format anywhere online. Using publicly
available documents that describe the .xls file format, I've been able
to decode some of the .VTS format (mainly relating to string storage),
as it follows the excel format quite closely. However, I still haven't
gotten to the most important parts, which are the formulas, cell
references, and cell formatting, although I expect this to closely
follow the excel format.
The problem with reverse engineering is that it is tedious and time
consuming with a risk of getting almost to the end and having a part of
the database that cannot be deciphered. Hence, my search for some
alternative solutions.
At this point, I have lots of questions and no answers. Hopefully
someone reading this can provide some insight.
Where can I find a description of the .VTS file format?
How can I find out the version of my .VTS files?
Can the Eclipse version of BIRT read .VTS files (a search of VTS on the
Eclipse BIRT forums returns 0 results)?
Any recommended approaches for solving my problem? Until I know the
version of my .VTS file, I don't think I can determine which current or
legacy Actuate product will help me to solve my problem.
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| Re: .VTS - version info and conversion to .XLS [message #501463 is a reply to message #501381] |
Wed, 02 December 2009 12:56  |
Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: urbpublic.hotmail.com
Rob Murphy wrote:
> You are correct that Eclipse BIRT doesn't read the .VTS files. VTS
> files are an older file format produced by BIRT Spreadsheet which is a
> commercial product from Actuate. The new format of this file is still a
> binary file with a SOD extension. The file specification for VTS and
> SOD files is not an open specification.
>
> The BIRT Spreadsheet Engine and API
> (http://www.actuate.com/products/spreadsheets/) allows you to write Java
> code which will read in VTS (and SOD) files and produce XLS, XLSX, and
> PDF Reports. This is still a supported and actively maintained product
> from Actuate.
> It sounds like you have also already found the spreadsheet forums on
> BIRT-Exchange
> ( http://www.birt-exchange.org/forum/spreadsheets-java-forums/), which is
> the proper place to get answers to additional questions.
>
> Rob
Rob - thanks for the hint. My original post was to the General
Discussion forum. I've reposted with additional info to the
spreadsheets-in-java forum which you suggested.
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