read excel, without COM or CSV export first

[ahs10]

i've searched quite a bit for this and i can't find any real solutions without using COM objects (i'm not running a windows server).  i know that a user could export their excel spreadsheet to CSV or XML, then upload that via a web application, but simplicity i'm trying to avoid that as well.

 

i found Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer in PEAR, which is awesome, i love it.  now i just need to do the reverse.  offer a web form with uploading capabilities, where you can upload an xls file (a fixed template file obviously), and it imports the contents into a database.  is there an open source version of this out there anywhere?  if not, has anyone tried tearing apart the functions in PMA that do this?

[Barand]

Another option, if available to you, is an Excel ODBC connection

[ahs10]

thanks for replying.  i was checking out the php classes website and there was an award given to a php class using this ODBC method.  can you explain it to me briefly?  i don't quite understand how it works.  to use this, don't certain drivers have to be used on the client's machine?

 

everything i've found so far on this subject is way too involved.  i need a brief overview or a ODBC for dummies version.

 

i have re-found the PHP-ExcelReader class on SF.  i say re-found because i found it before, it didn't work, i tinkered with it, it still didn't work.  however, i just now found a post by someone who tinkered with it a little more than i did.  i was on the right track, just didn't find everything wrong with it.

 

however, using the php manual to write my own application from scratch would suit my needs much more, mostly because i want to learn as much as i can.  so anything you can explain on this ODBC, would help.  thanks!