How to export data from model to excel file on rubyonrails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to export data from my models to an excel spreadsheet. I have seen 3 ways
Using the spreadsheet gem which I didn't understand how to use it,
the examples I saw was writing to a local file but I'm looking to
generate a file every time user clicks on a link.
Creating a method called export, and running the query there, then
making a export.xls file in my view, and that file creating the
table I want to be exported to the excel file, but this approach
don't allow me to create multiple sheets.
Followed this tutorial, http://oldwiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToExportToExcel,
but here doesn't show how to put the link in the view, looks to me that I'm missing something in the routes, I can give github so you can take a look at my code if needed.

Answer 1

My choice is to just manualy generate CSV file. Like:
File.new("data.csv", "w+") do |f|
#my_data.each do |data|
f << [data.title, data.body, ...].join(", ") + "\n"
end
end
CSV file can be opened with excel or any other spreadsheet soft.

Answer 2

I'm using writeexcel in my most recent Rails project. A fast and simple to use way to export excel files directly - no CSV!
To use it directly in your views you have to register writeexcel as a template handler - this is excalty what my gist does. Then create a new template like export.xls.writeexcel, insert your code and you're good to go.

Answer 3

Plugging my own gem here, but you might have a look at https://github.com/randym/acts_as_xlsx
It gives you a bit more than writeexcel or spreadsheet in terms of localization, graphs, tables and formatting from the axlsx gem.
It also integrated with active record scoping and method chains.
Blogpost with detailed usage examples:
http://axlsx.blogspot.com/
http://axlsx.blogspot.jp/2011/12/using-actsasxlsx-to-generate-excel-data.html
http://axlsx.blogspot.jp/2011/12/axlsx-making-excel-reports-with-ruby-on.html
On Github: https://github.com/randym/axlsx
On Rubygems: https://rubygems.org/gems/axlsx
On Rubytookbox: https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/projects/axlsx
Basically it involves setting up a responder in your controller
format.xlsx {
xlsx_package = Post.to_xlsx
begin
temp = Tempfile.new("posts.xlsx")
xlsx_package.serialize temp.path
send_file temp.path, :filename => "posts.xlsx", :type => "application/xlsx"
ensure
temp.close
temp.unlink
end
}
and the following on your model
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_xlsx
The two blog posts above give a fairly clear walk-through.