Tutorial: How to Create an Excel Workbook with Aspose.Cells Cloud API

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, make sure you have:

An Aspose Cloud account with an active subscription or free trial
Your Client ID and Client Secret from the Aspose Cloud Dashboard
Basic understanding of REST API concepts
Familiarity with your preferred programming language (examples provided in multiple languages)

Understanding Workbook Creation

Creating Excel workbooks programmatically is often the first step in many spreadsheet automation workflows. Aspose.Cells Cloud API provides multiple ways to create workbooks:

Creating empty workbooks
Creating workbooks from templates
Creating workbooks with Smart Markers

Let’s explore each approach step by step.

1. Creating an Empty Excel Workbook

The simplest way to generate a new Excel file is to create an empty workbook. This gives you a blank canvas to populate with your data.

Try It Yourself: Creating an Empty Workbook

Follow these steps to create your first empty workbook:

Prepare your authentication credentials
Make the API request to create an empty workbook
Verify the created workbook

Using cURL

curl -X PUT "https://api.aspose.cloud/v3.0/cells/newworkbook.xlsx?isWriteOver=false" \
-H "accept: application/json" \
-H "authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

SDK Examples

Let’s see how to create an empty workbook using different programming languages:

Python

# Tutorial Code Example - Creating an Empty Excel Workbook
import asposecellscloud
from asposecellscloud.apis.cells_api import CellsApi
from asposecellscloud.models import *
from asposecellscloud.requests import *

# Configure authentication
client_id = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
client_secret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
api = CellsApi(client_id, client_secret)

# Specify the name for the new workbook
name = "new_workbook.xlsx"

# Create a request to generate an empty workbook
request = PutWorkbookCreateRequest(name=name, is_write_over=True)

# Execute the request
response = api.put_workbook_create(request)

# Check if the workbook was created successfully
if response.status == "OK":
    print(f"Success! Empty workbook '{name}' created.")
    print(f"Workbook properties: {response.workbook}")
else:
    print(f"Error creating workbook: {response.status}")

C#

// Tutorial Code Example - Creating an Empty Excel Workbook
using System;
using Aspose.Cells.Cloud.SDK.Api;
using Aspose.Cells.Cloud.SDK.Model;
using Aspose.Cells.Cloud.SDK.Request;

namespace AsposeCellsCloudTutorial
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Configure authentication
            var clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
            var clientSecret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET";
            var api = new CellsApi(clientId, clientSecret);
            
            // Specify the name for the new workbook
            var name = "new_workbook.xlsx";
            
            // Create a request to generate an empty workbook
            var request = new PutWorkbookCreateRequest
            {
                Name = name,
                IsWriteOver = true
            };
            
            try
            {
                // Execute the request
                var response = api.PutWorkbookCreate(request);
                
                // Check if the workbook was created successfully
                Console.WriteLine($"Success! Empty workbook '{name}' created.");
                Console.WriteLine($"Workbook properties: {response.Workbook}");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error creating workbook: {ex.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Java

// Tutorial Code Example - Creating an Empty Excel Workbook
import com.aspose.cells.cloud.api.CellsApi;
import com.aspose.cells.cloud.model.*;
import com.aspose.cells.cloud.request.*;

public class CreateEmptyWorkbook {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Configure authentication
        String clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
        String clientSecret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET";
        CellsApi api = new CellsApi(clientId, clientSecret);
        
        try {
            // Specify the name for the new workbook
            String name = "new_workbook.xlsx";
            
            // Create a request to generate an empty workbook
            PutWorkbookCreateRequest request = new PutWorkbookCreateRequest();
            request.setName(name);
            request.setIsWriteOver(true);
            
            // Execute the request
            WorkbookResponse response = api.putWorkbookCreate(request);
            
            // Check if the workbook was created successfully
            System.out.println("Success! Empty workbook '" + name + "' created.");
            System.out.println("Workbook properties: " + response.getWorkbook());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Error creating workbook: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

2. Creating a Workbook from a Template

For more structured workbooks, you can create files based on existing templates. This is useful when you need consistent formatting or predefined formulas.

Try It Yourself: Creating a Workbook from a Template

First, upload your template file to Aspose.Cells Cloud storage
Then create a new workbook based on that template
Verify the created workbook contains all elements from the template

Using cURL

curl -X PUT "https://api.aspose.cloud/v3.0/cells/newworkbook.xlsx?templateFile=template.xlsx&isWriteOver=true" \
-H "accept: application/json" \
-H "authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Python Example

# Tutorial Code Example - Creating a Workbook from Template
import asposecellscloud
from asposecellscloud.apis.cells_api import CellsApi
from asposecellscloud.models import *
from asposecellscloud.requests import *

# Configure authentication
client_id = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
client_secret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
api = CellsApi(client_id, client_secret)

# Specify file names
template_file = "template.xlsx"
new_workbook = "from_template.xlsx"

# Create a request to generate a workbook from template
request = PutWorkbookCreateRequest(
    name=new_workbook, 
    template_file=template_file,
    is_write_over=True
)

# Execute the request
response = api.put_workbook_create(request)

# Check if the workbook was created successfully
if response.status == "OK":
    print(f"Success! Workbook '{new_workbook}' created from template '{template_file}'.")
else:
    print(f"Error creating workbook: {response.status}")

3. Creating a Workbook with Smart Markers

Smart Markers are a powerful feature that allows you to create data-populated workbooks. They act as placeholders in your template that get replaced with actual data.

Try It Yourself: Using Smart Markers

Create a template file with Smart Markers
Prepare your data file (typically XML)
Use the API to process the template with data

Smart Marker Example

# Tutorial Code Example - Creating a Workbook with Smart Markers
import asposecellscloud
from asposecellscloud.apis.cells_api import CellsApi
from asposecellscloud.models import *
from asposecellscloud.requests import *

# Configure authentication
client_id = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
client_secret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
api = CellsApi(client_id, client_secret)

# Specify file names
workbook_name = "smartmarker_template.xlsx"
xml_file = "Sample_SmartMarker_Data.xml"

# Create request to process Smart Markers
request = PostWorkbookGetSmartMarkerResultRequest(
    name=workbook_name,
    xml_file=xml_file
)

# Execute the request
response = api.post_workbook_get_smart_marker_result(request)

# The processed file is returned in the response
if response is not None:
    print("Success! Smart Marker template processed with data.")
    # You can save the response.body to a file
else:
    print("Error processing Smart Marker template.")

Troubleshooting Tips

When creating workbooks, you might encounter these common issues:

Authentication errors:
- Ensure your Client ID and Secret are correct
- Check that your access token is valid and not expired
File already exists:
- Set isWriteOver=false to prevent overwriting existing files
- Or set isWriteOver=true to replace existing files
Template file not found:
- Verify the template file exists in your storage
- Check that the path to the template file is correct
Smart Marker processing errors:
- Ensure your XML data format matches the Smart Markers in the template
- Verify that Smart Markers in the template are correctly formatted

What You’ve Learned

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to:

Create empty Excel workbooks through the Aspose.Cells Cloud API
Generate workbooks based on template files
Use Smart Markers to create data-populated workbooks
Handle common workbook creation scenarios and troubleshoot issues

Further Practice

To reinforce your learning, try these exercises:

Create a workbook with multiple worksheets
Generate a workbook from a template and add custom formatting
Create a complex Smart Marker template that generates a report from your data

Tutorial: How to Create an Excel Workbook with Aspose.Cells Cloud API

Prerequisites

Understanding Workbook Creation

1. Creating an Empty Excel Workbook

Try It Yourself: Creating an Empty Workbook

Using cURL

SDK Examples

Python

C#

Java

2. Creating a Workbook from a Template

Try It Yourself: Creating a Workbook from a Template

Using cURL

Python Example

3. Creating a Workbook with Smart Markers

Try It Yourself: Using Smart Markers

Smart Marker Example

Troubleshooting Tips

What You’ve Learned

Further Practice

Additional Resources