03 August 2009

Obba: A Java Object Handler for Excel and OpenOffice.

Obba: A Java Object Handler for Excel and OpenOffice.

Obba provides a bridge from spreadsheets to Java classes. With Obba, you can easily build spreadsheet GUIs (Excel or OpenOffice) to Java code. Its main features are:

  • Loading of arbitrary jar or class files at runtime through an spreadsheet function.
  • Instantiation of Java objects, storing the object reference under a given object label.
  • Invocation of methods on objects referenced by their object handle, storing the handle to the result under a given object label.
  • Asynchronous method invocation and tools for synchronization, turning your spreadsheet into a multi-threaded calculation tool.
  • Allows arbitrary number of arguments for constructors or methods (avoids the limitation of the number of arguments for Excel worksheet functions).
  • Serialization and de-serialization (save Serializable objects to a file, restore them any time later).
  • All this though spreadsheet functions, without any additional line of code (no VBA needed, no additional Java code needed).