Excel export of tables works funny

[Florence Rusciano]

When I export a table into excel, the excel files shows some kind of "page breaks" (two empty rows followed by repetition of column headings) which make it difficult to manipulate the data.

Also I exported some tables this morning, and still cannot see the WHO logo, nor the disclaimer.

[moores (moores)]

This is a tough one, which needs an administrative decision IMO. Here is why:

In the file called Navigation.js (around line 765), there is a Javascript that looks like the code below. If you remove " || type=="XLS"" it will format the Excel as one continuous set of rows (ie, the reported bug). BUT, there will be no footnotes with the data export. If you keep type==XLS then you get footnotes but the rows have breaks in them.

Steve

   /*
   Changed by S MOORE 30 Nov 2009
   var includeMetadata = "N";
   if(type=="PDF"){
    includeMetadata = "Y";
   } */

   var includeMetadata = "N";
   if(type=="PDF" || type=="XLS"){
    includeMetadata = "Y";
   }

[Knut Staring (knutst)]

We could consider having two buttons, but not sure how to differentiate them so as not to confuse people

[Philippe Boucher (boucherp)]

The way footnotes are handled in the XLS export means that cells that have a foot note end up having the footnote ID included in the cell value, which effectively corrupts it, this does not make for a useful spreadsheet. So, executive decision time - we turn off footnotes in the XLS export, get a sheet that looks more like a spreadsheet and doesnt have corrupted cell values. Regarding what the sheet actually looks like, we need to have a broader discussion on this. As far as I know there's no spec for what the exports are for, what they should look like, or how they should work. returning the web view of the table as a spreadsheet to is not particularly useful IMO, you could do exactly the same thing by cutting and pasting the HTML table directly into Excel. I've created a page in the wiki for this:
http://workspace.who.int/sites/GHO/wiki/Export%20formats.aspx
You can also navigate there by logging on to the GHO sharepoint site, click on the wiki tab and go to the Requirements, Design, and Specification section at the bottom of the firs wiki page.

[Philippe Boucher (boucherp)]

checked the code in to suppress metada in Excel exports - setting to fix-committed