excel2json

Copyright (C) 2013 by Hojin Choi hojin.choi@gmail.com

Excel2json is a converting script that supports to manage well structured excel data to json format.

You can freely redistribute this product with A-CUP-OF-BEER License (See source code)

USAGE

ADD SOME HINTS TO YOUR EXCEL FILE FOR JSON

There are four types of object, which can be handled by this script.

Simple Object

If you have an excel file, very simple one like this.

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Initial data
2		Name	Value
3		coins	1000
3		golds	0

And, Let's give a hint for the script, which awares A Column's '#' mark.

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Initial	data
2		Name	Value
3	#initdata{}	$key	$value		inserted!
4		coins	1000
5		golds	0

In the above example, you can get this JSON file

{
	"initdata" : {
		"coins" : 1000,
		"golds" : 0
	}
}

Objects in Object

Above example explains plain value object, now if you want an object which has objects as the key/value pairs, you can use "{{}}" suffix instead of "{}"

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Buildings
2		Name	Color	Width	Height
3	#buildings{{}}	$key	color	width	height
4		barrack	blue	200	200
5		mine	yellow	200	100
6		gas	red	100	100
7		townhall	black	200	200

And, this yields

{
	"buildings" : {
		"barrack" : {
			"color": "blue",
			"width": 200,
			"height": 200
		},
		"mine" : {
			"color": "yellow",
			"width": 200,
			"height": 100
		},
		"gas": {
			"color": "red",
			"width": 100,
			"height": 100
		},
		"townhall": {
			"color": "black",
			"width": 200,
			"height": 100
		}
	}
}			

Arrays in Object

This type of object has nested value as an array, see this example!

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Required coins of buildings
2	#reqcoins{[]}	barrack	mine	gas
3		100	100	100
4		500	500	500
5		1000	1000	1000
6		1500

As you can see, the suffix of #reqcoins is "{[]}", this gives hints for constructing vertical array. The result is

{
	"reqcoins" : {
		"barrack" : [100, 500, 1000, 1500 ],
		"mine" : [ 100, 500, 1000 ],
		"gas"  : [ 100, 500, 1000 ]
	}
}

Object Array

The last format of compound data is an array which contains objects, the suffix "[{}]"

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Shop
2	#shop[{}]	name	price	category
3		blade	100	attack
4		dagger	200	attack
5		shield	100	defese

And this yields

{
	"shop" : [
		{
			"name": "blade",
			"price" : 100,
			"category" : "attack"
		},
		{
			"name": "dagger",
			"price": 200,
			"category": "attack"
		},
		{
			"name": "shield",
			"price": 100,
			"category": "defense"
		}
	]
}

Array Value (Tip)

Magic field suffix "[]" of object description line introduce array value.

	A	B	C	D	E
1		Shop
2	#inventory[{}]	type	attrib[]	dur
3		blade	oil, diamond	100
4		dagger	sapphire	150
5		shield	diamond,sapphire,rune	200

The "attrib[]" field name terminates with "[]", which indicates attrib key has array value. so, the result will be like this.

{
	"inventory" : [
		{
			"type": "blade",
			"attrib": [ "oil", "diamond" ],
			"dur": 100
		},
		{
			"type": "dagger",
			"attrib": [ "sapphire" ],
			"dur": 150
		},
		{
			"type": "shield",
			"attrib": [ "diamond", "sapphire", "rune" ],
			"dur": 200
		}
	]
}

Some technical marks

'!' prefixed sheet name

You can insert '!' mark before a sheet name which will not be considered to be parsed. For e.g. '!Samples', '!Test' or '!Templates'.

RUN Excel2Json.js

".js" extension files are associated with WSCRIPT.EXE (Windows already has this program!), you can easily run the script by double click!

You may also make your own start script, like an 'excel2json.bat' with which you can run the script specifying excel files and output folder name as the arguments.

MKDIR output
WSCRIPT.EXE Excel2Json.js file1.xlsx file2.xlsx product

HOWTO-WORK

Internally, CSV format is used to parse excel files.

By clicking the script in explorer:

0. Make 'output' folder (mkdir output)
1. Run the script in a folder without any argument (by clicking)
2. The script searches the folder for all excel files with extension .xls, .xlsx.
3. All the sheets in the excel file are converted to CSV files.
4. The CSV files are stored temporary folders with suffix (.$$$)
6. Parse the CSV files and make json files into the 'output' folder.
7. All the temporary folders will be removed with their contents (csv files)

By running WSCRIPT.EXE Excel2Json.js file1.xlsx file2.xlsx product:

1. All the proceess is same with above.
2. But it does not search the directory for excel files.
3. And use the 'product' directory instead of 'output' for its result.