How to export data from model to excel file on rubyonrails

Question

I'm trying to export data from my models to an excel spreadsheet. I have seen 3 ways

1. Using the spreadsheet gem which I didn't understand how to use it, the examples I saw was writing to a local file but I'm looking to generate a file every time user clicks on a link.
2. Creating a method called export, and running the query there, then making a export.xls file in my view, and that file creating the table I want to be exported to the excel file, but this approach don't allow me to create multiple sheets.
3. Followed this tutorial, http://oldwiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToExportToExcel, but here doesn't show how to put the link in the view, looks to me that I'm missing something in the routes, I can give github so you can take a look at my code if needed.

Answer 1

My choice is to just manualy generate CSV file. Like:

File.new("data.csv", "w+") do |f|
  @my_data.each do |data|
    f << [data.title, data.body, ...].join(", ") + "\n"
  end
end

CSV file can be opened with excel or any other spreadsheet soft.

Answer 2

I'm using writeexcel in my most recent Rails project. A fast and simple to use way to export excel files directly - no CSV!

To use it directly in your views you have to register writeexcel as a template handler - this is excalty what my gist does. Then create a new template like export.xls.writeexcel, insert your code and you're good to go.