[R] [ANN:] new package xlsReadWrite*Pro*: announce + update.

[Hans-Peter]

I am happy to announce that a new version of xlsReadWritePro is available.

xlsReadWritePro natively reads and writes Excel files (v97 - 2003) on
Windows. The pro version is more powerful than the free version but,
beeing a small company, we ask you to support our development and
maintenance effort.

The following capabilities have been added (compared to xlsReadWrite):

• in-memory objects (compose reports, append)
• better sheet handling (select/ins/copy/del/...)
• data area subsets (rows/cols/from/to/area)
• use (named) ranges and pick individual cells
• insert images, hyperlinks, work with formulas
• oledatetime type and many helper functions
• get information about an Excelfile.

Browse the (shortened) help files: http://treetron.googlepages.com/00Index.html
Download a brochure:
http://treetron.googlepages.com/xlsReadWrite_Pro_Datasheet.pdf

Download the package: http://treetron.googlepages.com/xlsReadWritePro_1.2.1.zip
Download Test-/Demoscripts:
http://treetron.googlepages.com/xlsReadWritePro_TestData_1.2.1.zip

The pro version can be tested by everyone during a free trial of 30
days. If you don't like/need the pro version, you can always go back
to the free xlsReadWrite. The interfaces are very similar.

For more info please see http://treetron.googlepages.com (or download
the brochure).


Below is the update message for the new version:

o Changes from xlsReadWritePro 1.0.1 to 1.2.1

  - new argument "stringsAsFactors = default.stringsAsFactors()"
        (proposed by Peter Cock)
    Remark: this is a potentially code breaking change. Until now
strings have been
    retrieved as characters. The new default behaviour is more in line
with read.table

  - new argument "checkNames = TRUE"
        (proposed by Peter Cock)

  - new colClasses argument "link" to write hyperlinks.
        (motivated by Mark W. Kimpel)

  - new colClasses argument "mixed" (and: "mixedCharacter", "mixedFactor")
    to write character or factor vectors which contains numbers. The
numbers become
    real numbers in Excel and not strings (with conversion hint). See
details in ?write.xls.
        (motivated by Mark W. Kimpel)

  - new argument "formulasAsValues = TRUE". This high level setting can
    be overriden by the (new) colClasses argument formula.
  - (read.xls/write.xls) new colClasses argument "formula" to read and
write formulas.
    Will be auto-determined from Exceldata and
        (motivated by Jeff Laake)

  - argument "cells" extended to accept character vector for
    *named ranges* and a numeric R1C1R2C2 range vector.
  - "xls.range" to retrieve information about named ranges.
        (motivated by Michael Clifford)

  - "xls.images" to add an image into an Excel spreadsheet
        (motivated by Mark W. Kimpel and Michael Clifford)

  - "useOleDateTime" has been changed to "dateTimeAs". This argument is used to
    decide how Excel date and time values should be handled if no
explicit "colClasses"
    argument has been given. Possible values are:
    - "numeric"     (numeric value)
    - "oledatetime" (numeric value of class oleDate, oleTime or
oleDateTime which triggers
                     formatting as date/time string).
    - "isodatetime" (character value)

  - factors now handled in the Delphi code by a call to the R function as.factor
  - fixed NA factors bug (thanks to Mark W. Kimpel!)
  - range checks disabled again (flexcel needs this)
  - other small fixes


o Functions (declarations) as per v1.2.1

  - "read.xls" <-
    function( file = if (!is.na( keep )) NA,
          colNames = if (is.na( keep ) && !is.integer( file )) TRUE else FALSE,
          sheet = if (is.na( keep ) && !is.integer( file )) NA else NULL,
          type = "data.frame",
          from = NA, to = NA, rows = NA, cols = NA, cells = NA,
          rowNames = NA, colClasses = NA, checkNames = TRUE,
          dateTimeAs = "oledatetime",
          stringsAsFactors = default.stringsAsFactors(),
          formulasAsValues = TRUE,
          keep = NA )

  - "write.xls" <-
     function( x, file = if (!is.na( keep )) NA,
          colNames = if (is.na( keep ) && !is.integer( file )) TRUE else FALSE,
          sheet = if (is.na( keep ) && !is.integer( file )) NA else NULL,
          from = NA, to = NA, rows = NA, cols = NA, cells = NA,
          rowNames = NA, colClasses = NA,
          dateTimeAs = "oledatetime",
          keep = NA,
          append = FALSE )

  - xls.info, xls.sheet, xls.range, xls.image, xls.new, xls.open,
xls.save, xls.cancel, xls.close

  - languagesAndLCID, dateTimeToStr, dateTimeToIsoStr, strToDate,
strToDateTime, strToTime, isoStrToDateTime, shortDateFormat,
longTimeFormat, encodeDateTime, encodeDate, encodeTime, decodeDateTime

  - dateOf, timeOf, isInLeapYear, isPM, weeksInYear, daysInYear,
daysInMonth, now, today, isToday, yesterday, tomorrow, yearOf,
monthOf, weekOf, dayOf, hourOf, minuteOf, secondOf, milliSecondOf,
startOfTheYear, endOfTheYear, startOfTheMonth, endOfTheMonth,
startOfTheWeek, endOfTheWeek, startOfTheDay, endOfTheDay,
dayOfTheYear, weekOfTheMonth, dayOfTheWeek, hourOfTheDay,
minuteOfTheDay, secondOfTheDay, milliSecondOfTheDay, yearsBetween,
monthsBetween, weeksBetween, daysBetween, yearSpan, monthSpan,
weekSpan, daySpan, hourSpan, minuteSpan, secondSpan, milliSecondSpan,
incYear, incMonth, incWeek, recodeYear, recodeMonth, recodeDay,
recodeHour, recodeMinute, recodeSecond, recodeMilliSecond,
sameDateTime, sameDate, sameTime, dateTimeToJulianDate,
julianDateToDateTime, dateTimeToModifiedJulianDate,
modifiedJulianDateToDateTime

--
Regards,
Hans-Peter