Obba 3.0.12: Java Object Handler for Spreadsheets (OpenOffice/LibreOffice/NeoOffice)

NEW VERSION brings Platform Independent Client / Server Java Spreadsheet Add-Ins for Excel, OpenOffice, LibreOffice and NeoOffice

Obba provides a bridge between spreadsheets and Java classes. With Obba, you can use spreadsheets as GUIs for your Java libraries; turning your Java library to platform independent spreadsheet add-ins. Compatible with Excel/Windows, OpenOffice/Win/Mac/Linux, LibreOffice/Win/Mac/Linux, NeoOffice/Mac.

Note: Obba is not compatible with Excel/Mac (on the OS X use OpenOffice).

Homepage: http://www.obba.info

Its main features are:

• Stateful access to almost all objects and methods running in a Java virtual machine via a fixed set of spread sheet functions.
• Client/server support: The Java virtual machine providing the add-in may run on the same computer or a remote computer - without any change to the spreadsheet.
• Loading of arbitrary jar or class files at runtime through a 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).

For a tutorial see Obba tutorial. In this tutorial you create a Java class and a spreadsheet to fetch Stock quotes from finance.yahoo.com.

Version 3.0 of Obba is a major revision and brings support for running the Java virtual machine references in the spreadsheet on a different machine.

Version 3.0.12 improves support for OpenOffice (including OO for Mac).

Obba 3.0.14: Dynamically create object from source (compile to class & reload class)

Obba 3.0.14 is a small update which brings a great new feature:

Dynamically compile source code (represented as a String in the spreadsheet) to a class and instantiate an object from it via Obba's spreadsheet function (obMake).

• Changes to the source string are immediately reflected in the class (which triggers recreation of the object if dependencies are appropriate).
• The compiler knows all classes known to Obba at runtime.
• Objects constructed that way interoperate seamlessly with other objects held by the Obba's object handler.

See "Demos/04 - Source to Object Demo" in Obba.zip.

Demo video: Create objects dynamically from source code.

A corresponding demo video is now available at http://www.obba.info/movies/Obba Demo - Class to Object.mov.