Stop bundling SheetJS for simple Excel exports: a 5 KB alternative

The article discusses the creation of a minimalistic Excel (.xlsx) file generator in JavaScript, which is designed to be lightweight and suitable for embedding directly into web applications. The author describes how they built this tool from scratch without relying on any external libraries or frameworks, focusing on specific features that are essential for generating simple data tables.

Key Points:

1. Purpose: To generate a basic Excel file with minimal dependencies, suitable for exporting data in web applications.
2. Features:
   • Header row with bold text and background color
   • Frozen header row
   • Basic date and number formatting
3. Limitations:
   • No formulas or complex features like images, charts, comments, merged cells, or conditional formatting
   • Limited to small workbooks (a few hundred KB)
4. Technical Details:
   • Uses the OOXML format specification for Excel files.
   • Implements a simple ZIP file writer without compression.
   • Manages shared strings and styles manually.

Steps Involved:

1. OOXML Format: Understands the basic structure of an .xlsx file, which is essentially a ZIP archive with XML files inside.
2. ZIP Implementation: Writes a minimal ZIP implementation to

Read the full article at DEV Community

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