[Tracker] Spreadsheets support: Gnumeric

[Luca Ferretti <elle uca libero it>]

If we want add support for different spreadsheet formats, we can add
some filters using Gnumeric support tools:

SSCONVERT
        "It is  a  command  line  utility  to  convert spreadsheet files
        between various spreadsheet file formats." (from man ssconvert)
        
        Supported formats:
        .as    Appliz
        .oleo  Oles
        .wb?   Quattro Pro
        .dbf   Xbase
               Paradox Database or Index
               SC/xspread
        .wk?   Lotus 123
        .dif   data interchange
        .mps   linear and integer programming
               MultiPlan (SYLK)
        .csv   comma separated values
        .tsv   tab separated values
        Plus, of course the .gnumeric format and MS Excel.
        

SSINDEX
        "It is a command line utility to generate index data for various
        spreadsheet file formats." (from man ssindex)
        
        This is really really good tool for our purpose. It's used by
        Beagle too. While ssconvert is used to convert the format of a
        spreadsheet (so we should export it in a know format, extract
        relevant stuff from here, then delete temporary stuff), ssindex
        do the hard job for us. Running `ssindex -i` on attached
        Gnumeric spreadsheet you have:
        
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <gnumeric>
          <data>January</data>
          <data>January</data>
          <data>Travelling:</data>
          <data>Total:</data>
          <data>Buy new music:</data>
          <data>Drinking:</data>
          <data>Buy new RAM:</data>
          <data>Eating</data>
          <data>February</data>
          <data>February</data>
          <data>Travelling:</data>
          <data>Total:</data>
          <data>Buy new movies:</data>
          <data>Drinking:</data>
          <data>Buy printer ink:</data>
          <data>Eating</data>
        </gnumeric>
        
        All relevant data in XML, ready to be indexed. Numbers are
        formulas are purged. Maybe it could be able to extract metatada,
        but I wasn't able to save them in Gnumeric...
        
        The only limitation seems the supported formats: running
        `ssindex -i` you have this list:
        
        application/x-gnumeric
        application/csv
        application/tab-separated-values
        text/comma-separated-values
        text/csv
        text/spreadsheet
        text/tab-separated-values
        text/x-comma-separated-values
        
        Not so much, but honestly I was able to successfully run it on
        Excel too, so maybe it could work on old formats like Lotus123
        and Quattro Pro. I've to find some of those files on the Net.
        
So, anyone ready to work on it?

Attachment: cash-flow.gnumeric
Description: application/gnumeric