Import Data From Excel To DB Using AngularJS And Web API 2

Introduction

In this article, we will explain how to import data from an Excel sheet to SQL Server database by using library named js-xlsx. In this demo, we are going to create a basic Application whose role is to show you the steps, which are used to achieve our goal. Prior to it, you need to have some basic knowledge on AngularJS, Web API2 and Entity Framework ORM. I hope, you will like my article.

In this article, we are going to

Create database.
Create Web API Application.
Configuring Entity Framework ORM.
Create controller.
AngularJS part.
Create HTML page.

Let’s start.

SQL database part

Here, you will find the scripts to create a database and table.

Create a database

USE [master]
GO
/****** Object: Database [DbEmployee] Script Date: 3/25/2017 8:23:01 AM ******/
CREATE DATABASE [DbEmployee]
CONTAINMENT = NONE
ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N'DbEmployee', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbEmployee.mdf' , SIZE = 3072KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'DbEmployee_log', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbEmployee_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 110
GO
IF (1 = FULLTEXTSERVICEPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled'))
begin
EXEC [DbEmployee].[dbo].[sp_fulltext_database] @action = 'enable'
end
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_NULL_DEFAULT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_NULLS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ARITHABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_CLOSE OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_SHRINK OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CURSOR_DEFAULT GLOBAL
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DISABLE_BROKER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET TRUSTWORTHY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET PARAMETERIZATION SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET HONOR_BROKER_PRIORITY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET MULTI_USER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET PAGE_VERIFY CHECKSUM
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DB_CHAINING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET FILESTREAM( NON_TRANSACTED_ACCESS = OFF )
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME = 0 SECONDS
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET READ_WRITE
GO

Create a table

USE [DbEmployee]
GO
/****** Object: Table [dbo].[EmployeeTable] Script Date: 3/25/2017 8:23:51 AM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[EmployeeTable](
[EmployeeID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[FirstName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[LastName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Gender] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Designation] [nchar](10) NULL,
[Salary] [int] NULL,
[City] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Country] [varchar](50) NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_EmployeeTable] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[EmployeeID] 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

After creating the table, you can add some records. as shown below.

AngularJS

Create your Web API Application

Open Visual Studio and select File >> New Project.

The "New Project" Window will pop up. Select ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework), name your project and click OK.

AngularJS

Now, new dialog will pop up to select the template. We are going to choose Web API template and click OK button.

AngularJS

After creating our project, we are going to add ADO.NET Entity Data Model.

Adding ADO.NET Entity Data Model

To add ADO.NET Entity Framework, right click on the project name, click Add > Add New Item. A dialog box will pop up. Inside Visual C#, select Data followed by ADO.NET Entity Data Model and enter the name for your Dbcontext model as DbEmployee. Finally click Add.

AngularJS

In this level, we are going to choose EF Designer from the database, as show below.

AngularJS

After clicking Next button, a dialog will pop up with the name connection properties. You need to enter your Server name and connect to a database panel, select database via dropdown List (DbEmployee). Now, click OK button.

AngularJS

Now, the dialog Entity Data Model Wizard will pop up for choosing an object, which we need to use. In our case, we are going to choose EmployeeTable and click Finish button. Finally we see that EDMX model generates EmployeeTable class.

AngularJS

Create a controller

Now, we are going to create a controller. Right click on the controllers folder > Add > Controller> select Web API 2 Controller – Empty > click Add.

AngularJS

Enter Controller name (‘EmployeeController’).

AngularJS

EmployeeController.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.Http.Description;
namespace ExcelToDB.Controllers
{
[RoutePrefix("api/Employee")]
public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
//DbContext
DbEmployeeEntities db = new DbEmployeeEntities();
[Route("Save")]
[HttpPost]
[ResponseType(typeof(void))]
public IHttpActionResult Save(List<EmployeeTable> employeeList)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
foreach(var data in employeeList)
{
db.EmployeeTables.Add(data);
}
db.SaveChanges();
return StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}
}
}

As you can see, I am creating Save() action, which takes an employee list as a parameter. We will now save the data to an employee table.

AngularJS part

In order to create new js file, right click on Scripts folder > Add > JavaScript file.

AngularJS

ImportData.js

var app = angular.module('app', []);
app.controller('Ctrl', ['$scope', '$http', function ($scope, $http) {
$scope.selectedFile = null;
$scope.msg = "";
$scope.loadFile = function (files) {
$scope.$apply(function () {
$scope.selectedFile = files[0];
})
}
$scope.handleFile = function () {
var file = $scope.selectedFile;
if (file) {
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function (e) {
var data = e.target.result;
var workbook = XLSX.read(data, { type: 'binary' });
var first_sheet_name = workbook.SheetNames[0];
var dataObjects = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(workbook.Sheets[first_sheet_name]);
//console.log(excelData);
if (dataObjects.length > 0) {
$scope.save(dataObjects);
} else {
$scope.msg = "Error : Something Wrong !";
}
}
reader.onerror = function (ex) {
}
reader.readAsBinaryString(file);
}
}
$scope.save = function (data) {
$http({
method: "POST",
url: "api/Employee/Save",
data: JSON.stringify(data),
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
}).then(function (data) {
if (data.status) {
$scope.msg = "Data has been inserted ! ";
}
else {
$scope.msg = "Error : Something Wrong";
}
}, function (error) {
$scope.msg = "Error : Something Wrong";
})
}
}]);

Create HTML page

To add HTML page, right click on the project name > Add > HTML page.

AngularJS

ImportData.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>.: Import Data with AngularJS :.</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<link href="Content/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body ng-app="app">
<div ng-controller="Ctrl" class="container" style="margin-top:50px;">
<input type="file" name="file" class="form-control"
onchange="angular.element(this).scope().loadFile(this.files)" />
<br/><br/>
<input type="button" value="Import Data" class="btn btn-default"
ng-click="handleFile()" />
<br/>
<p ng-bind="msg"></p>
</div>
<script src="Scripts/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/ImportData.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/jszip.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Note

Don’t forget to add the libraries given below in ImportData.html

<script src="Scripts/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/ImportData.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/jszip.js"></script>

Demo

Here, I have created an Excel file with the records given below.

AngularJS

Now, you can run your Application. Try to upload an Excel file, followed by clicking on import data button. Finally refresh your table from the database created previously and see the result, as shown below.
AngularJS

See also

http://jsfiddle.net/danielzen/utp7j/
https://github.com/SheetJS/js-xlsx

Happy coding.

10 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

karthik g6y ago
It Doesn't work with large excel file.
Dhandapani TR7y ago
This code not allow to upload large excel file, can anyone give solution for upload large excel file
Hamid Khan9y ago
Very good explanation.......................
Santosh Patil9y ago
Even i am facing the issue in IE11. readAsBinaryString Is not supported. Can someone please help me out for this ?
lakshmana poojary9y ago
reader.readAsBinaryString(file); is not supported in I.E 11 browser. Hence It is not working in I.E 11 browser. Can some please help me out for this ?
Kazi Chele)9y ago
Awesome article..... Thanks for sharing..... You just save me :)
Abhishek Chaurasia9y ago
Is this use libraries free or licensesd like <script src="Scripts/xlsx.full.min.js"></script> <script src="Scripts/jszip.js"></script>
- wikum wijeysooriya9y ago
  Seems like this library is free
wikum wijeysooriya9y ago
Source code please
Thiruppathi R9y ago
Nice article thank you for sharing..