docs.sheetjs.com/docz/docs/03-demos/20-cli/08-boxednode.md

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Sheets in a Box with boxednode	boxednode	demos/desktop/index	demos/data/index	summary NodeJS binaries with scripts, built from source

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boxednode¹ is a tool for generating command-line tools that embed scripts. It automates the process of building NodeJS from source.

SheetJS is a JavaScript library for reading and writing data from spreadsheets.

This demo uses boxednode and SheetJS to create a standalone CLI tool for parsing spreadsheets and converting to other formats.

:::note Tested Deployments

This demo was tested in the following deployments:

Architecture	Version	NodeJS	Date
darwin-x64	2.4.4	23.11.0	2025-04-21
darwin-arm	2.4.4	22.14.0	2025-04-03
win11-x64	2.4.4	16.20.2	2025-05-07
linux-x64	2.4.4	23.11.0	2025-04-21
linux-arm	2.4.4	23.8.0	2025-02-15

:::

Integration Details

The SheetJS NodeJS module can be required from scripts. boxednode will automatically handle packaging.

Script Requirements

Scripts that exclusively use SheetJS libraries and NodeJS built-in modules can be bundled using boxednode

The demo script xlsx-cli.js runs in NodeJS. It is a simple command-line tool for reading and writing spreadsheets.

Complete Example

0. Download the test file https://docs.sheetjs.com/pres.numbers:

curl -o pres.numbers https://docs.sheetjs.com/pres.numbers

1. Download xlsx-cli.js

curl -o xlsx-cli.js https://docs.sheetjs.com/cli/xlsx-cli.js

2. Install the dependencies:

{`\ npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`} {`\ pnpm install --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`} {`\ yarn add https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`}

3. Create the standalone program:

npx -y boxednode@2.4.4 -s xlsx-cli.js -t xlsx-cli

:::note pass

In previous linux-arm test runs, the build failed with an error:

../deps/v8/src/base/small-vector.h:  In instantiation of ‘class v8::base::SmallVector<std::pair<const v8::internal::compiler::turboshaft::PhiOp*, const v8::internal::compiler::turboshaft::OpIndex>, 16>’:
../deps/v8/src/compiler/turboshaft/loop-unrolling-reducer.h:444:11:   required from here
../deps/v8/src/base/macros.h:206:55: error: static assertion failed: T should be trivially copyable
{"  206 |"}   static_assert(::v8::base::is_trivially_copyable<T>::value, \\
{"      |"}                                                       ^~~~~

This affects NodeJS 22.2.0, but does not affect 20.13.1 or 23.8.0. It also affects the V8 JavaScript Engine.

The -n flag controls the target NodeJS version. For this demo, the following command uses NodeJS 23.8.0:

npx -y boxednode@2.4.4 -s xlsx-cli.js -t xlsx-cli -n 23.8.0

:::

npx -y boxednode@2.4.4 -s xlsx-cli.js -t xlsx-cli.exe -n 16.20.2

:::info pass

The Windows builds require Visual Studio with "Desktop development with C++" workload, Python 3.11, and NASM².

The build command must be run in "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt"

:::

:::caution pass

In some test runs, the build failed:

Not an executable Python program
Could not find Python.

By default, Windows aliases python to a Microsoft Store installer. If the official installer was used, the alias should be disabled manually:

1. Open Start menu and type "app alias". Click "Manage app execution aliases".

2. Disable the App Installer for all items with python in the name.

Using Python 3.12, the build fails with an error:

Please use python3.11 or python3.10 or python3.9 or python3.8 or python3.7 or python3.6.

In the most recent test, Python 3.11.8 was installed from the official site.

:::

:::caution pass

When the demo was last tested on Windows, the build failed:

error MSB8020: The build tools for Visual Studio 2019 (Platform Toolset = 'v142') cannot be found. To build using the v142 build tools, please install Visual Studio 2019 build tools.

This error was fixed by installing the following components from Visual Studio:

• C++/CLI support for v142 build tools
• MSVC v142 - VS 2019 - C++ x64/x86 build tools
• MSVC v142 - VS 2019 - C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs

:::

:::caution pass

In the most recent Windows test against NodeJS 20.8.0, the build failed due to an issue in the OpenSSL dependency:

...\node-v20.8.0\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\cversion.c(75,33): error C2153: integer literals must have at least one digit [...\node-v20.8.0\deps\openssl\openssl.vcxproj]

SheetJS libraries are compatible with NodeJS versions dating back to v0.8. The workaround is to select NodeJS v16.20.2 using the -n flag. This version was was chosen since NodeJS v18 upgraded the OpenSSL dependency.

:::

4. Run the generated program, passing pres.numbers as the argument:

./xlsx-cli pres.numbers

.\xlsx-cli.exe pres.numbers

---

1. The project does not have a website. The source repository is publicly available. ↩︎

2. Downloads can be found at the main NASM project website ↩︎