Computer guys: can you turn an excel spreadsheet into a web based calculator?

CHrisP86CHrisP86 Frets: 360
I’ve got some excel workbooks I use at work.

They have an input sheet as the first sheet, all the data then feeds through formulas in the other sheets.

I was wondering if it wasn’t possible to put them in a web based format. 

One page for the inputs, click ‘submit’, the input page runs through the formulas and then the next page loads with the outputs or generates a pdf with the outputs on it.

Assuming this is possible... can someone give me the basics on how you would get that to work?  It seems simple in my head but how ‘difficult’ would it be for someone that knows how to do it? 

Thanks

Chris
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Comments

  • pmbombpmbomb Frets: 1169
    Most anything's possible in software with enough resource applied.

    But that's probably not helpful.

    Have you tried loading it into Google Sheets and see if it gets converted?

    Or can something in Microsoft's online tools do it?

    Failing that stump up some cash and a programmer (cough) can do it.
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  • CHrisP86CHrisP86 Frets: 360
    I’m definitely thinking I would need someone to do this for me, so that’s fine.

    I know there’s a few computer bods on here so i’d just like to grasp what’s involved/possible so I can fine tune my ideas. 
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11679
    The way to do this these days would be to make the spreadsheet itself a shareable document online, in onedrive or google sheets etc.

    This is not suitable for all applications, but for simply giving access to a document, would work pretty well?

    You can write web applications to do literally anything these days, a simple data transform input >> operations >> output I'd do with HTML forms and PHP but there are a lot of ways to skin that particular cat.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • CHrisP86CHrisP86 Frets: 360
    Spreadsheet converter looks good.

    It would be for external use and is sort of the base of a online business so would need to look decent.

    @darthed1981 is this your line of work?  How much would it cost to build a web app as you described?
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11679
    CHrisP86 said:
    Spreadsheet converter looks good.

    It would be for external use and is sort of the base of a online business so would need to look decent.

    @darthed1981 is this your line of work?  How much would it cost to build a web app as you described?
    It is my line of work, but in the context of doing it for a packing and packaging business as sole IT/software Manager rather than quoting for it commercially.  We do charge for things I do to our customers, but at an hourly rate more based on my "package" being budgeted and them being existing customers.

    It doesn't sound THAT complex though.  It doesn't sound like thousands and thousands.  Spreadsheets are often developed over time and get much more complex than they actually need to be, skipping a few steps may make it much simpler.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • Simon_MSimon_M Frets: 542
    edited July 2019
    If you can provide the spreadsheets then any web developer should be able to do this for you. It's just a case of translating the calculations from one language (Excel's markup) to whatever you want on a website, Javascript or PHP or whatever. I did this sort of stuff when I was at school and it isn't particularly complex (assuming your spreadsheet isn't enormous with millions of parameters). It's amazing how many freelance web developers there are now too so you should be able to find a good one to do the coding. If it needs to look pretty, pay a CSS guy. Chances are you can find someone who do both coding and GUI now as an all in one.

    EDIT: Or basically what @darthed1981 said.

    EDIT2: Just looked at the spreadsheet converter. You might pay someone who just runs it through that. The results look impressive.
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  • Axe_meisterAxe_meister Frets: 4613
    Can you host the spreadsheet on SharePoint?
    In my experience spreadsheets very quickly become a crap substitute for a proper app with a database behind it.
    Alas to this day nobody has come up with a really easy to use app development framework for the web.
    The closest I've found is Google's Appmaker.
    Similar to MS access but built for the web.
    Need to know java script though.
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  • roundthebendroundthebend Frets: 1129
    @CHrisP86 I could probably help you out depending on how big the form is, how much use it will get, how complex the formulae are etc.

    But you might get something easier by searching for "form building tools online".

    e.g. https://www.jotform.com/
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  • CHrisP86CHrisP86 Frets: 360
    Thanks for the extra info, guys.

    @roundthebend thanks for the offer.  Let me firm up my plans and I will give you a shout.
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