docs.sheetjs.com/docz/docs/03-demos/19-desktop/04-tauri.md

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Data Wrangling in Tauri Apps	Tauri	Build data-intensive desktop apps using Tauri. Seamlessly integrate spreadsheets into your app using SheetJS. Modernize Excel-powered business processes with confidence.	demos/mobile/index	demos/cli/index	4	summary Webview + Rust Backend

Data Wrangling in Tauri Apps

import current from '/version.js'; import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs'; import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem'; import CodeBlock from '@theme/CodeBlock';

Tauri is a modern toolkit for building desktop apps. Tauri apps leverage platform-native browser engines to build lightweight programs.

SheetJS is a JavaScript library for reading and writing data from spreadsheets.

This demo uses Tauri and SheetJS to pull data from a spreadsheet and display the data in the app. We'll explore how to load SheetJS in a Tauri app and exchange file data between the JavaScript frontend and Rust backend.

The "Complete Example" section covers a complete desktop app to read and write workbooks. The app will look like the screenshots below:

Windows	macOS	Linux

Integration Details

The SheetJS NodeJS Module can be installed and imported from JavaScript code.

:::note pass

Tauri currently does not provide the equivalent of NodeJS fs module. The raw @tauri-apps/api methods used in the examples are not expected to change.

:::

For security reasons, Tauri apps must explicitly enable system features.¹ They are enabled in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json in the allowlist subsection of the tauri section of the config.

• The fs entitlement² enables reading and writing file data.

  "tauri": {
    "allowlist": {
      //highlight-start
      "fs": {
        "all": true
      }
      // highlight-end

• The dialog entitlement³ enables the open and save dialog methods.

  "tauri": {
    "allowlist": {
      //highlight-start
      "dialog": {
        "all": true
      }
      // highlight-end

• The http entitlement⁴ enables downloading files. Note that http is not needed for reading or writing files in the local filesystem.

  "tauri": {
    "allowlist": {
      //highlight-start
      "http": {
        "all": true,
        "request": true,
        "scope": ["https://**"]
      }
      // highlight-end

Reading Files

There are three steps to reading files:

1. Show an open file dialog to allow users to select a path. The open method in @tauri-apps/api/dialog⁵ simplifies this process.

2. Read raw data from the selected file using the readBinaryFile method in @tauri-apps/api/fs⁶. This method resolves to a standard Uint8Array

3. Parse the data with the SheetJS read method⁷. This method returns a SheetJS workbook object.

The following code example defines a single function openFile that performs all three steps and returns a SheetJS workbook object:

import { read } from 'xlsx';
import { open } from '@tauri-apps/api/dialog';
import { readBinaryFile } from '@tauri-apps/api/fs';

const filters = [
  {name: "Excel Binary Workbook", extensions: ["xlsb"]},
  {name: "Excel Workbook", extensions: ["xlsx"]},
  {name: "Excel 97-2004 Workbook", extensions: ["xls"]},
  // ... other desired formats ...
];

async function openFile() {
  /* show open file dialog */
  const selected = await open({
    title: "Open Spreadsheet",
    multiple: false,
    directory: false,
    filters
  });

  /* read data into a Uint8Array */
  const d = await readBinaryFile(selected);

  /* parse with SheetJS */
  const wb = read(d);
  return wb;
}

At this point, standard SheetJS utility functions⁸ can extract data from the workbook object. The demo includes a button that calls sheet_to_json⁹ to generate an array of arrays of data. The following snippet uses VueJS framework but the same logic works with ReactJS and other front-end frameworks:

import { utils } from 'xlsx';
import { shallowRef } from 'vue';
const data = shallowRef([[]]); // update data by setting `data.value`

const open_button_callback = async() => {
  const wb = await openFile();

  /* get the first worksheet */
  // highlight-start
  const ws = wb.Sheets[wb.SheetNames[0]];
  // highlight-end

  /* get data from the first worksheet */
  // highlight-start
  const array = utils.sheet_to_json(ws, { header: 1 });
  // highlight-end
  data.value = array;
};

Writing Files

There are three steps to writing files:

1. Show a save file dialog to allow users to select a path. The save method in @tauri-apps/api/dialog¹⁰ simplifies this process.

2. Write the data with the SheetJS write method¹¹. The output book type can be inferred from the selected file path. Using the buffer output type¹², the method will return a Uint8Array object that plays nice with Tauri.

3. Write the data using writeBinaryFile in @tauri-apps/api/fs¹³.

The following code example defines a single function saveFile that performs all three steps starting from a SheetJS workbook object:

import { write } from 'xlsx';
import { save } from '@tauri-apps/api/dialog';
import { writeBinaryFile } from '@tauri-apps/api/fs';

const filters = [
  {name: "Excel Binary Workbook", extensions: ["xlsb"]},
  {name: "Excel Workbook", extensions: ["xlsx"]},
  {name: "Excel 97-2004 Workbook", extensions: ["xls"]},
  // ... other desired formats ...
];

async function saveFile(wb) {
  /* show save file dialog */
  const selected = await save({
    title: "Save to Spreadsheet",
    filters
  });
  if(!selected) return;

  /* Generate workbook */
  const bookType = selected.slice(selected.lastIndexOf(".") + 1);
  const d = write(wb, {type: "buffer", bookType});

  /* save data to file */
  await writeBinaryFile(selected, d);
}

The demo includes a button that calls aoa_to_sheet¹⁴ to generate a sheet from array of arrays of data. A workbook is constructed using book_new and book_append_sheet¹⁵. The following snippet uses VueJS framework but the same logic works with ReactJS and other front-end frameworks:

import { utils } from 'xlsx';
import { shallowRef } from 'vue';
const data = shallowRef([[]]); // `data.value` is an array of arrays

const save_button_callback = async() => {
  /* generate worksheet from the data */
  // highlight-start
  const ws = utils.aoa_to_sheet(data.value);
  // highlight-end

  /* create a new workbook object */
  // highlight-start
  const wb = utils.book_new();
  // highlight-end

  /* append the worksheet to the workbook using the sheet name "SheetJSTauri" */
  // highlight-start
  utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "SheetJSTauri");
  // highlight-end

  await saveFile(wb);
}

Complete Example

:::note Tested Deployments

This demo was tested in the following environments:

OS and Version	Architecture	Tauri	Date
macOS 14.4	darwin-x64	v1.5.11	2024-03-15
macOS 14.0	darwin-arm	v1.5.2	2023-10-18
Windows 10	win10-x64	v1.5.0	2023-10-01
Windows 11	win11-arm	v1.5.7	2023-12-01
Linux (HoloOS)	linux-x64	v1.5.9	2024-01-23
Linux (Debian)	linux-arm	v1.5.7	2023-12-01

:::

0. Read Tauri "Getting Started" guide and install prerequisites.¹⁶

Installation Notes (click to show)

At a high level, the following software is required for building Tauri apps:

• a native platform-specific C/C++ compiler (for example, macOS requires Xcode)
• a browser engine integration (for example, linux requires webkit2gtk)
• Rust

The platform configuration can be verified by running:

npx @tauri-apps/cli info

If required dependencies are installed, the output will show a checkmark next to "Environment". The output from the most recent macOS test is shown below:

[✔] Environment
    - OS: Mac OS 14.4.0 X64
    ✔ Xcode Command Line Tools: installed
    ✔ rustc: 1.76.0 (07dca489a 2024-02-04)
    ✔ cargo: 1.76.0 (c84b36747 2024-01-18)
    ✔ rustup: 1.27.0 (bbb9276d2 2024-03-08)
    ✔ Rust toolchain: stable-x86_64-apple-darwin (default)
    - node: 20.11.1
    - npm: 10.2.4
    - bun: 1.0.31

:::caution pass

When the demo was last tested on ARM64 macOS, the output mentioned X64. The build step will correctly detect the platform architecture.

:::

1. Create a new Tauri app:

npm create tauri-app@latest -- -m npm -t vue-ts SheetJSTauri -y

2. Enter the directory and install dependencies:

{\ cd SheetJSTauri npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz npm i --save @tauri-apps/api npm i --save-dev @tauri-apps/cli}

3. Add the highlighted lines to src-tauri/tauri.conf.json in the tauri.allowlist section:

  "tauri": {
    "allowlist": {
// highlight-start
      "http": {
        "all": true,
        "request": true,
        "scope": ["https://**"]
      },
      "dialog": {
        "all": true
      },
      "fs": {
        "all": true
      },
// highlight-end

In the same file, look for the "identifier" key and replace the value with com.sheetjs.tauri:

        "icons/icon.ico"
      ],
      // highlight-next-line
      "identifier": "com.sheetjs.tauri",
      "longDescription": "",

4. Download App.vue and replace src/App.vue with the downloaded script.

curl -o src/App.vue https://docs.sheetjs.com/tauri/App.vue

5. Build the app with

npm run tauri build

At the end, it will print the path to the generated installer.

:::info pass

If the build fails, see "Troubleshooting" for more details.

:::

6. Run the program.

Depending on the version of Tauri, the command may be

./src-tauri/target/release/SheetJSTauri

or

./src-tauri/target/release/sheet-js-tauri

.\src-tauri\target\release\SheetJSTauri.exe

The following features should be manually verified:

• When it is loaded, the app will download https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers and display the data in a table.
• Clicking "Save Data" will show a save dialog. After selecting a path and name, the app will write a file. That file can be opened in a spreadsheet editor.
• Edit the file in a spreadsheet editor, then click "Load Data" and select the edited file. The table will refresh with new contents.

Troubleshooting

:::note pass

During the last Linux ARM64 test, the build failed to create an AppImage:

        Error [tauri-cli-node] failed to bundle project: error running appimage.sh

This is a known Tauri AppImage packaging bug. Since the actual application and the .deb distributable are created, the error can be ignored.

:::

:::note pass

During the last Linux x64 test, the build failed with the error message:

'openssl/opensslv.h' file not found

OpenSSL must be installed. On Arch Linux and HoloOS (Steam Deck):

sudo pacman -S openssl

:::

:::note pass

During the last macOS test, the build failed with the following error message:

       Error failed to bundle project: error running bundle_dmg.sh

The root cause of the error can be discovered by running

npm run tauri build -- --verbose

The most recent test failed with a message:

execution error: Not authorized to send Apple events to Finder

This error was resolved by allowing Terminal to control Finder.

In the "System Settings" app, select "Privacy & Security" in the left column and select "Automation" in the body. Look for "Terminal", expand the section, and enable "Finder".

:::

---

1. See "Security" in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

2. See FsAllowlistConfig in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

3. See DialogAllowlistConfig in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

4. See HttpAllowlistConfig in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

5. See dialog in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

6. See fs in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

7. See read in "Reading Files" ↩︎

8. See "Utility Functions" ↩︎

9. See "Array Output" in "Utility Functions" ↩︎

10. See dialog in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

11. See write in "Writing Files" ↩︎

12. See "Supported Output Formats" ↩︎

13. See fs in the Tauri documentation ↩︎

14. See "Array of Arrays Input" in "Utility Functions" ↩︎

15. See "Workbook Helpers" in "Utility Functions" ↩︎

16. See "Prerequisites" in the Tauri documentation ↩︎