Extracting Raw Data Using Excel Services REST API

Question

I am trying to create a home page in SharePoint 2013 that shows quick stats based on an Excel workbook stored in a document library. Through my research I found that I could leverage the Excel Services REST API to pull the information I need from the workbook
via URIs and display it on a SharePoint page in a seamless manner.
The problem I am having is pulling the data I need as raw text.
For example, I can create a page in HTML that says "Our sales for the month grew by [X%]" and use an img src tag that points to
http://sample.com/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/workbook.xlsx/Model/Ranges('Sheet1!A1')?$format=image to show a picture of cell A1 which contains the data I want to show inline on my page.
I want a way to pull the data in cell A1 as raw text so that I can format it as part of the HTML page. I tried using
$format=html, but that just takes me to a separate page where the cell is formatted exactly as it is in the workbook.
Is there a way to do what I am trying to do? The more detailed your response can be, the better as I am fairly new to these features. And also, is there a way to perform calculations of cells in HTML? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi,
According to your description, you might want to extract text value from a specific cell in an Excel file using Excel Services REST API.
As there is no such predefined format can be used to return text value only, I would suggest you return the value as json format, then parse it and set to your HTML
tag using jQuery.
Here is a <p> tag with a script which can set the value of the <p> tag with the value gets from cell “A1”:
<p id="cell1">test</p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//replace the strings below with yours
var libName = "Shared Documents";
var fileName = "Book1.xlsx";
var rangeName = "A1";
$(function(){
var s = getCellValue(libName, fileName, rangeName);
$("#cell1").html(s);
function getCellValue (libName, fileName, rangeName)
var cell = "";
$.ajax({
url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/"+libName+"/"+fileName+"/model/Ranges('"+rangeName+"')?$format=json",
method: "GET",
headers: { "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose" },
dataType: "json",
async: false,
success: function (data) {
console.log(data.rows[0][0].v);
cell = data.rows[0][0].v;
error: function (data) {
console.log(data);
return cell;
</script>
You can add it into your page via a Content Editor Web Part, it will take effect after the page loaded.
Here are two links about how to add code into page via Content Editor Web Part:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdev/archive/2011/04/14/using-the-javascript-object-model-in-a-content-editor-web-part.aspx
http://sharepointadam.com/2010/08/31/insert-javascript-into-a-content-editor-web-part-cewp/
Best regards
Patrick Liang
TechNet Community Support