Import And Export Data Using EPPlus.Core

Introduction

In this post, we will see how we can import and export Excel data in ASP.NET Core. We are using EPPlus.Core library which helps us to perform import and export operations. I hope you will like it.

Download Source Code

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed Visual Studio 2017 (.Net Framework 4.6.1) and SQL Server.

In this post, we are going to -

Create Database.
Create MVC application.
Install EPPlus.Core library
Use Entity Framework Core database first approach.
Create our Customer Controller.

SQL Database part

Here, you can find the script to create a database and its tables.

Create Database

USE [master]
GO
/****** Object: Database [DbCustomers] Script Date: 2/18/2018 2:19:48 AM ******/
CREATE DATABASE [DbCustomers]
CONTAINMENT = NONE
ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N'DbCustomers', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbCustomers.mdf' , SIZE = 4096KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'DbCustomers_log', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbCustomers_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 110
GO
IF (1 = FULLTEXTSERVICEPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled'))
begin
EXEC [DbCustomers].[dbo].[sp_fulltext_database] @action = 'enable'
end
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ANSI_NULL_DEFAULT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ANSI_NULLS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ARITHABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET AUTO_CLOSE OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET AUTO_SHRINK OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET CURSOR_DEFAULT GLOBAL
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET DISABLE_BROKER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET TRUSTWORTHY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET PARAMETERIZATION SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET HONOR_BROKER_PRIORITY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET MULTI_USER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET PAGE_VERIFY CHECKSUM
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET DB_CHAINING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET FILESTREAM( NON_TRANSACTED_ACCESS = OFF )
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME = 0 SECONDS
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbCustomers] SET READ_WRITE
GO

Create Table

After creating the database, we will move to create the "Customers" table.

Customers Table

USE [DbCustomers]
GO
/****** Object: Table [dbo].[Customers] Script Date: 2/18/2018 2:20:40 AM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Customers](
[CustomerID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[CustomerName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[CustomerEmail] [varchar](50) NULL,
[CustomerCountry] [varchar](50) NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_Customers] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[CustomerID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO

Create your MVC application

Open Visual Studio and select File >> New Project.

The "New Project" window will pop up. Select ASP.NET Core Web Application, name your project, and click OK.

Next, a new dialog will pop up for selecting the template. We are going to choose Web API template and click OK.

ASP.NET Core

Once our project is created, we will add EPPlus.Core library.

Installing EPPlus.Core library

In Package Manager console, run the following command.

Install-Package EPPlus.Core

ASP.NET Core

Adding Entity Framework Core database first approach.

Here, we need to create the EF model based on the existing database.

Tools => NuGet Package Manager => Package Manager Console.

In the package manager console, let’s run the following command:

ASP.NET Core

Scaffold-DbContext " Server =.; Initial Catalog = DbCustomers; Integrated Security = True;" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -OutputDir Models/DBF

As you can see, the command above will generate a model from the existing database within Models/DBF folder.

Customers.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace EPPlusCore.Models.DBF
{
public partial class Customers
{
public int CustomerId { get; set; }
public string CustomerName { get; set; }
public string CustomerEmail { get; set; }
public string CustomerCountry { get; set; }
}
}

DbCustomersContext.cs

using System;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata;
namespace EPPlusCore.Models.DBF
{
public partial class DbCustomersContext : DbContext
{
public virtual DbSet<Customers> Customers { get; set; }
public DbCustomersContext(DbContextOptions<DbCustomersContext> options) : base(options)
{
}
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<Customers>(entity =>
{
entity.HasKey(e => e.CustomerId);
entity.Property(e => e.CustomerId).HasColumnName("CustomerID");
entity.Property(e => e.CustomerCountry)
.HasMaxLength(50)
.IsUnicode(false);
entity.Property(e => e.CustomerEmail)
.HasMaxLength(50)
.IsUnicode(false);
entity.Property(e => e.CustomerName)
.HasMaxLength(50)
.IsUnicode(false);
});
}
}
}

Startup.cs

Now, we are opening Startup.cs and we need to add the following lines of code within ConfigureServices() method.

string connection = "Server =.; Initial Catalog = DbCustomers; Integrated Security = True";
services.AddDbContext<DbCustomersContext>(options => options.UseSqlServer(connection));

Create a Controller

Now, we are going to create a Controller. Right-click on the Controllers folder> > Add >> Controller>> selecting API Controller – Empty >> click Add. In the next dialog, name the controller as CustomerController and then click Add.

CustomerController.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using System.IO;
using OfficeOpenXml;
using System.Text;
using EPPlusCore.Models.DBF;
namespace EPPlusCore.Controllers
{
[Produces("application/json")]
[Route("api/Customer")]
public class CustomerController : Controller
{
private readonly IHostingEnvironment _hostingEnvironment;
private readonly DbCustomersContext _db;
public CustomerController(IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment, DbCustomersContext db)
{
_hostingEnvironment = hostingEnvironment;
_db = db;
}
[HttpGet]
[Route("ImportCustomer")]
public IList<Customers> ImportCustomer()
{
string rootFolder = _hostingEnvironment.WebRootPath;
string fileName = @"ImportCustomers.xlsx";
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(rootFolder, fileName));
using (ExcelPackage package = new ExcelPackage(file))
{
ExcelWorksheet workSheet = package.Workbook.Worksheets["Customer"];
int totalRows = workSheet.Dimension.Rows;
List<Customers> customerList = new List<Customers>();
for (int i = 2; i <= totalRows; i++)
{
customerList.Add(new Customers
{
CustomerName = workSheet.Cells[i, 1].Value.ToString(),
CustomerEmail = workSheet.Cells[i, 2].Value.ToString(),
CustomerCountry = workSheet.Cells[i, 3].Value.ToString()
});
}
_db.Customers.AddRange(customerList);
_db.SaveChanges();
return customerList;
}
}
[HttpGet]
[Route("ExportCustomer")]
public string ExportCustomer()
{
string rootFolder = _hostingEnvironment.WebRootPath;
string fileName = @"ExportCustomers.xlsx";
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(rootFolder, fileName));
using (ExcelPackage package = new ExcelPackage(file))
{
IList<Customers> customerList = _db.Customers.ToList();
ExcelWorksheet worksheet = package.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("Customer");
int totalRows = customerList.Count();
worksheet.Cells[1, 1].Value = "Customer ID";
worksheet.Cells[1, 2].Value = "Customer Name";
worksheet.Cells[1, 3].Value = "Customer Email";
worksheet.Cells[1, 4].Value = "customer Country";
int i = 0;
for (int row = 2; row <= totalRows + 1; row++)
{
worksheet.Cells[row, 1].Value = customerList[i].CustomerId;
worksheet.Cells[row, 2].Value = customerList[i].CustomerName;
worksheet.Cells[row, 3].Value = customerList[i].CustomerEmail;
worksheet.Cells[row, 4].Value = customerList[i].CustomerCountry;
i++;
}
package.Save();
}
return " Customer list has been exported successfully";
}
}
}

As you can see, we have two methods which will be used to perform the import and export operations.

So, let’s begin with ImportCustomer() method which is responsible to import data from excel file to customers table.

Note, in solution explorer, precisely in wwwroot folder, I added ImportCustomers.xlsx with data rows that are used to import data. To get path of the Excel file, we used the following lines of code

string rootFolder = _hostingEnvironment.WebRootPath;
string fileName = @"ImportCustomers.xlsx";
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(rootFolder, fileName));

Then, we have an ExportCustomer() method which is used to export the data from customers table to ExportCustomer.xlsx file.

Demo

Import Customers

Now, let’s run the application and call the following URI YourLocalHost/api/Customer/ImportCustomer.

Once finished, open Customers table and you will see that the data rows have been added successfully.

ImportCustomers.xlsx

Customers table

Export Customers

Now, we will call the following URI for exporting data rows from Customers table to ExportCustomers.xlsx.

YourLocalHost/api/Customer/ExportCustomer

Once finished, open ExportCustomers.xlsx file and you will see that the data rows have been exported successfully.

ExportCustomers.xlsx

ASP.NET Core

That’s all. Please send your feedback and queries in the comments box.

5 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Geho Da Firenze7y ago
What do I need to do to save a new file in the computer, instead overwritting the content of the file??
Robert Everett7y ago
When I run the app, worksheet ["Customer"] is null. Do I need to create the sheet with some data in MS Excel in ImportCustomers.xlsx before adding it to wwwroot ?
Former member8y ago
Detailed blog:http://wp.me/p3Osmq-zr
Former member8y ago
A detailed blog with sample code : http://wp.me/p3Osmq-A4
Sagar Pandurang Kap8y ago
Nice article.What is primary use of this??