Export silverlight DataGrid to Excel Action

Download demo project: DataGrid2Excel.zip

Download the action: DataGrid2ExcelAction.zip

UPDATE!

The Excel exporter now supports nested properties (ProductGroup.ProductType.Name). Thank you Chris Meijers for helping me with the code to loop through nested properties.

If you need to export data from Silverlight to Excel, you have a few options like using COM or creating Excel documents on the server. Another method is to create Excel XML and save this on the client with a FileSaveDialog. This is a very easy way to create a worksheet with a simple list of data. Try it:

Demo:

To make this action I created an excel document, saved it as an XML file and used that XML as a template to create documents. At runtime I replace a data placeholder with the data from my DataGrid. I isolated the code and created a Silverlight TriggerAction.

How to use?

• Add the DataGrid2ExcelAction.cs to your project
• You may want to change the namespace DataGrid2Excel to your project namespace
• Open the assets window in blend and drop a DataGrid2ExcelAction on a DataGrid
• Element-bind the SourceObject to a button and choose the Click-event
• uhhh…that’s it! Happy exporting!

This export action is very basic. I have only tested it with a simple list of data and only in Excel 2007 on a Windows 7 machine. If you like the action and improve it in any way, please let me know and I’ll update it here.