# Read xlsx file without paid modules **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition80\ **Created:** [July 29, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202 "2020-07-29T19:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![h.sumrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@h.sumrain](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/h.sumrain)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/1 "2020-07-29T19:51:33Z")
Hi everyone! Up to now and at the current version of Ignition, what is a good/easy way to read a xlsx file without using 3rd party paid modules if possible? Thanks a bunch! ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/2 "2020-07-29T20:33:56Z")
Do you mean Good _ **or** _ Easy? Because _good_ is possible, but not really easy. By that, I mean you can create your own add-on module that includes the Apache POI jars, for free. You’ll probably spend more (time==money) figuring out how to do that than it costs just to buy Kymera’s module. ---
**Author:** ![peter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/278dde/32.png) [@peter](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/peter)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 9:11pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/3 "2020-07-29T21:11:14Z")
There are several open source Python libraries you could potentially use. Just google “python open source xlsx reader” ---
**Author:** ![bschroeder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bschroeder/32/13260_2.png) [@bschroeder](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bschroeder)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/4 "2020-07-29T21:14:03Z")
I’ve had luck with xlrd in the past: [https://pypi.org/project/xlrd/](https://pypi.org/project/xlrd/) If you are using Ignition 7.9 you have to go get an older version of xlrd… I think 0.7.9. I’ve not testing it with Ignition 8.x to see if you can use a newer version. ---
**Author:** ![h.sumrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@h.sumrain](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/h.sumrain)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/5 "2020-07-29T21:46:16Z")
Thanks for your response pturmel. I am familiar with the module but I took a look on its documentation and what I found is that the module exports to Excel formats not read from it. Check it out. ![Capture](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/0/9/091c40e83af3281a42e8fd44f5e7ca43a1fa9d53.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![h.sumrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@h.sumrain](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/h.sumrain)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/6 "2020-07-29T21:53:37Z")
Thanks bschroeder. I found that xlrd is for .xls files only but there are other libraries like openpyxl that works for xlsx. I am just getting errors when trying to use it. I made sure that the library version is compatible with Python 2.7 but no luck so far. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/7 "2020-07-29T22:01:32Z")
The Kymera module only exposes convenience functions for exporting, true, but it loads the Apache POI jars, which you can use directly in jython. You should contact their support for suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/8 "2020-07-29T22:15:49Z")
Apache POI is also included by Ignition already, though the Kymera modules may include some additional POI-related jars? ---
**Author:** ![yifeiliu08](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbe5ce/32.png) [@yifeiliu08](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/yifeiliu08)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/9 "2020-09-20T11:05:19Z")
Kevin , do you have some manual introduce use ignition’s Apache POI to read and import the Excel document? thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/read-xlsx-file-without-paid-modules/37202/10 "2020-09-20T11:39:48Z")
This is a bit dated but should get you started: [https://www.tutorialspoint.com/apache\_poi/index.htm](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/apache_poi/index.htm) The formal documentation for the current version in v8 is here: [http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/4.1/](http://poi.apache.org/apidocs/4.1/)