Noob Programming Question?

Hey all,

I am creating an application for the iPhone and although I am getting the hang of how it all works, still have some questions. My application is going to start with a table view with a Project name at each cell. When you click on the projects disclosure button it will go to another table view with the details of that project. Here is where I am a little stumped. I have a standard excel file with some data I want extracted from it. So my first question is, should I look into transferring that data into something like Core Data or Sqlite first? I imagine it would be easier doing this than trying to have the application read in the excel file. So any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

My second question is, on the second table view with the project details, my plan is to have a project progress bar similar to a long rectangle (beginning project data at front, end date at the end of rectangle) with little triangles on top showing the given projects progress (in %) from the previous week, previous 2 weeks, etc. All of that data will be in the excel file previously mentioned. I understand that something like this has to be made from scratch as it isn't included in the Open Interface Library. I am pretty lost here, but where would I even begin? Do I just create a .png file of the said image and go on from there? Quartz 2d? And when the image is created, can you actually manipulate it? So if you guys have any suggestions on what I should look for I would very much greatly appreciate it!

Thanks Alex

 

Noob Question

Thanks for the reply. I figured it would be easier if converted to .csv or something along those lines. I will have a look at your suggestions. Thanks again.