I have some Excel models/spreadsheets which I think have good potential if they are adoped to a proper website. My question is how do I go about it, which language, tools do I need. I'll be hiring someone for it most probably but need the basic idea of how it'll work. Someone told me some ASP.net controls might do the trick. Any ideas? Thanks
If it is just to display the data, there there are many solutions. You can simply save your excel sheets to CSV format, and any moderate level php developer will easily load them and display them. The other option is very cost effective, save the spreadsheet as html, and simply uplaod it. Unless you have a special method in mind for displaying them, above methods an get you started. regards
No, not like that. I mean just use it like Excel, but Excel is a bit too general purpose to adapted for it. Heres the scenario, I have the model and I want to have it converted to a website where people can input there own values and get the results according to the algos and formulae of the Model i've made.
Any working example that I can get idea from? Secondly, what exactly you are calling 'Model' to? regards
Calypso, Any language could be used most likely. I've taken simple profit projection models I've written in Excel and coverted them to Javascript, and I've used PHP to do more complex modelling that involved charts. I could have just as easily done either task in php, javascipt, asp, perl, etc. I'd recommend picking a developer who'll use a lnaguage you wouldn't mind learning.
I am talking about models similar to the profit projection models you are referring to. What I have in mind is a web based Excel spreadsheet only difference being that it wont be full blown Excel, it'll just work for that particular model and give projections according to the data entered by the user there and then.
How many fields are you talking? Also, would the data need to be saved between sessions? For example, if I fill out the form and two weeks from now decide that I need to change some of the values for that projection, would I have to fill out the whole form again? If your model only has a few values, it'd be a piece of cake to write using javascript. If the values need to be saved between session or if there 50 fields of data required, then you'll want to use a language like php, perl, asp, etc. Heres an example of an Excel workbook that I turned into a web page: http://www.customdj.us/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,46/ I figure that most people will only fill it out once or maybe twice, but never again after that, so I don't bother saving the data between session. If it were something someone could fill out now and use for comparisson 6 months for now, then I would store their entries in a data base for later retrieval. If this is exactly like what you want done, place a help wanted post in the coder wanted thread. It shouldn't cost too much to do. I could od it, but I'm really swamped with work at the moment. I just hired another part time guy today though, so maybe next week will look better.