carlwilson / clisc

Command Line Interface Spreadsheet Count, Convert, Compare & Archive

CLISC

Command Line Interface Spreadsheet Count, Convert, Compare & Archive

A Windows console application made in C#. It is a prototype project for digital archiving of spreadsheets.

• For more information, see the wiki
• For graphical user interface, see repository GUISC
• For simple archival workflow conversion tool, see repository convert-spreadsheets
• For simple archival workflow validation tool, see repository validate-spreadsheets

🏳️‍🌈 General

• Batch convert spreadsheets in a directory to .xlsx
• Include or exclude subdirectories recursively
• Output results in a new directory with logs in CSV

➕ Count

Count number of spreadsheets in directory by file format.

• Accepted file extensions: .gsheet, .fods, .numbers, .ods, .ots, .xla, .xlam, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsm, .xlsx, .xlt, .xltm, .xltx
• .xlsx of Transitional and Strict conformance can be counted separately

🪄 Convert

Convert any spreadsheet¹ to .xlsx (Transitional conformance).

• Office Open XML (Excel) with extensions .xlsb, .xlsm, .xltm, .xltx and .xlsx with Strict conformance
• Legacy Microsoft Excel with extensions .xls and .xlt
• OpenDocument with extensions .fods, .ods and .ots

🔍 Compare

Compare original and converted spreadsheets to log differences.²

• Cell values

🗄️ Archive

The program can convert, package and describe spreadsheets to meet a data quality level, that will enable you to open your spreadsheets many years from now.

• Convert any spreadsheet¹ to both .xlsx (Strict conformance) and .ods
• Package spreadsheets and metadata in a new archive directory
• Output all conversions in subdirectories named n+1
• Rename all conversions 1.xlsx and 1.ods
• Include copies of the original spreadsheets, this include password protected or otherwise unreadable files
• Validate spreadsheet against its file format standard (Office Open XML)
• Check if any cell values exists
• Remove cell references to other spreadsheets but keep cell values
• Remove data connections but keep cell values
• Remove RealTimeData (RTD) functions but keep cell values
• Remove printer settings
• Remove external objects
• Alert if spreadsheet has embedded objects
• Make first sheet the active sheet
• Calculate file checksums
• Zip the archive directory

Dependencies

⚠️ Microsoft Excel

• If you want to convert legacy Excel and/or use the archiving method, which converts .xlsx conformance from Transitional to Strict

⚠️ LibreOffice

• If you want to convert OpenDocument spreadsheets and/or use the archiving method
• You need to install program in its default directory, or create environment variable "LibreOffice" with path to your installation

⚠️ Beyond Compare 4

• If you want to use the compare function
• You need to install program in its default directory, or create environment variable "BeyondCompare" with path to your installation

How to use

Download the executable version here. There's no need to install. In your terminal change directory to the folder where CLISC.exe is. Then, to execute the program input:

.\CLISC.exe [your_arguments]

Create your arguments from the following list:

Functions to use (required, pick one of the four)

--function Count
--function CountConvert
--function CountConvertCompare
--function CountConvertCompareArchive

Input directory (required)

--inputdir "[path to input directory]"

Output directory (required)

--outputdir "[path to output directory]"

Include subdirectories from input directory (optional, by default false)

--recurse true

Example of full usage

.\CLISC.exe --function CountConvertCompareArchive --inputdir "c:\my_path" --outputdir "c:\my_path" --recurse true

or shorter

.\CLISC.exe -f CountConvertCompareArchive -i "c:\my_path" -o "c:\my_path" -r true

If you want to test the application, a sample dataset is provided here.

Packages and software

The following packages and software are used under license in CLISC. Read more.

• Beyond Compare 4, Copyright (c) 2022 Scooter Software, Inc.
• CommandLineParser, MIT License, Copyright (c) 2005 - 2015 Giacomo Stelluti Scala & Contributor
• Microsoft Excel, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
• LibreOffice, Mozilla Public License v2.0
• Open XML SDK, MIT License, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation

Footnotes

1. See definition of accepted spreadsheet file formats. ↩ ↩²

2. The program can currently not compare cell formatting, embedded objects, charts and other advanced spreadsheet features. ↩