chore(all): Replace exceljs with write-excel-file by tombrunet · Pull Request #2628 · IBMa/equal-access

tombrunet · 2026-08-28T20:29:02Z

Summary

Replace the peer dependency (unmaintained) with across all packages. The XLSX report output is functionally equivalent — same five sheets, same column widths, same colour coding and cell styling.

Motivation

exceljs has not received meaningful maintenance. Switching to write-excel-file removes the dependency on an unmaintained library and eliminates the 'use strict' patching workaround that was required in the browser extension's preprocess.js.

Changes

Core logic — `common/module/src/report/ACReporterXLSX.ts`

Full rewrite from ExcelJS's imperative workbook/worksheet/cell API to write-excel-file's data-array model.
Each sheet builder now returns a { data, sheet, columns } object; all sheets are passed to writeExcelFile(sheets).toFile(filename) in one call.
Cell colours converted from ExcelJS ARGB format ("FF403151") to standard 6-digit hex ("#403151").
Lazy-load guard updated: dynamic import now targets write-excel-file/node; warning message updated accordingly.
worksheet.commit() / workbook.commit() calls removed (not needed by the new library).

Extension — `accessibility-checker-extension/`

package.json: replaced exceljs direct dependency with write-excel-file.
preprocess.js: removed the sed commands that stripped 'use strict' from the exceljs bundle (no longer needed).
jest.config.js: removed stale comment referencing exceljs.

E2E test helper — `accessibility-checker-extension/test/`

support/steps/steps_excel.ts: replaced exceljs Workbook reader with read-excel-file/node; updated cell-address parsing to use the library's row/column array model.
package.json: replaced exceljs with read-excel-file.

`package.json` peer / direct dependency updates

All packages that declared exceljs as a peer or direct dependency have been updated to declare write-excel-file@^4.1.1 instead:

accessibility-checker/package.json
accessibility-checker/src/package.json
cypress-accessibility-checker/package.json + package/package.json
vitest-accessibility-checker/package.json + src/package.json + package/package.json
karma-accessibility-checker/package.json
common/module/package.json

Pre-built JS artefacts regenerated

All committed copies of ACReporterXLSX.js (CJS + MJS outputs across accessibility-checker, cypress-accessibility-checker, vitest-accessibility-checker, karma-accessibility-checker) were rebuilt from the new TypeScript source and committed.

Testing checklist

Confirm these scenarios before merging.

XLSX report output (accessibility-checker Node.js)

Run accessibility-checker against a page with violations and confirm a .xlsx file is written to disk.
Open the generated file — verify 5 sheets are present: Overview, Scan summary, Issue summary, Issues, Definition of fields.
Overview sheet: confirm title row background is dark purple (#403151), summary counts (Violations / Needs review / Recommendations / Archived) are correct, and column widths are reasonable.
Scan summary sheet: confirm one data row per scan, all 9 columns populated, numeric columns (Violations, Needs review, …) are right-aligned with borders.
Issue summary sheet: confirm Level 1–4 sections are present with correct counts; rows within each level are sorted descending by count.
Issues sheet: confirm one row per issue, all 14 columns populated, header row has dark purple background.
Definition of fields sheet: confirm both the Scan summary and Issues definition tables are present.
Run a scan with outputFilenameTimestamp: false and confirm the output file is named results.xlsx (not timestamped).
Confirm that if write-excel-file is not installed the warning "Warning: write-excel-file is not installed…" is printed and the process does not crash.

Browser extension (accessibility-checker-extension)

Build the extension (npm run build:dev) — confirm it compiles without errors (no exceljs webpack error or 'use strict' conflict).
Load the extension in Chrome/Firefox and generate an XLSX report from the UI — confirm the file downloads and opens correctly in Excel / LibreOffice.
Confirm preprocess.js no longer modifies any node_modules files on build.

E2E tests (accessibility-checker-extension/test)

Run npm test in accessibility-checker-extension/test — the Cucumber step Excel Sheet "…" Cell "…" is "…" should pass using read-excel-file.

Downstream packages

cypress-accessibility-checker: run npm run test and confirm XLSX output is produced correctly.
vitest-accessibility-checker: run npm run test and confirm XLSX output is produced correctly.
karma-accessibility-checker: run npm run build with no errors.

- accessibility-checker: mocha test calling ACReporterXLSX.generateSummary() directly (no rule server needed); validates all 5 sheets and key cells - vitest-accessibility-checker: parallel Node forks test using same approach; vitest.node.config.mjs replaces the .js version (poolOptions removed for v4) - cypress-accessibility-checker: Cypress e2e test + adm-zip tasks in cypress.config.js; adds outputFilenameTimestamp: false to .achecker.yml Fix XLSX XML parser helpers in all three tests: - Sheet name lookup: extract r:id and name attrs independently (write-excel-file emits r:id before name, opposite of the old regex assumption) - Cell parsing: use attribute-order-independent regex that handles both self-closing <c .../> and full <c ...>...</c> forms; index rows by actual Excel row number (sparse array) so merged/skipped rows don't shift indices CI (test.yml): add mocha XLSX + vitest test:node steps to both Linux and Windows basic jobs; add npm install write-excel-file before each step

counts.elements can be 0 (or undefined) when a page has no elements to check. Dividing by zero produces NaN which write-excel-file writes as <v>NaN</v> — illegal OOXML that triggers Excel's corruption-repair dialog. Guard both percentage columns: return 0 when counts.elements is 0.

…n missing file - test.yml: add 'npm install write-excel-file' step for cypress-accessibility-checker (peerDependencies are not auto-installed by npm install) - cypress.config.js: guard readXlsxCell and xlsxSheetExists tasks against missing file so tests fail with a clear message instead of ADM-ZIP crash

achecker-xlsx.test.js imports ACReporterXLSX (CJS) and adm-zip — both Node-only. The default include pattern was picking it up in the Chromium browser run causing 'does not provide an export named ACReporterXLSX'. Explicitly exclude it from vitest.config.js; it runs separately via vitest.node.config.mjs (pool: forks).

… packages peerDependencies are not auto-installed by npm install, causing 'write-excel-file is not installed' warnings in CI for cypress and vitest. Move write-excel-file to regular dependencies in: - accessibility-checker - cypress-accessibility-checker - vitest-accessibility-checker Remove the now-redundant explicit 'npm install write-excel-file' CI steps.

…EADMEs Move write-excel-file (and adm-zip in common/module) from peerDependencies to regular dependencies in all remaining packages: - common/module - accessibility-checker/src (published package manifest) - vitest-accessibility-checker/src (published package manifest) - karma-accessibility-checker Update all four READMEs to remove the 'Optional: XLSX Report Format' install instructions — XLSX is now included automatically.

nam-singh · 2026-09-01T12:55:09Z

+        "cypress": "^13.2.0 || ^15"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
+        "adm-zip": "^0.5.9",


@tombrunet I have not explored cypress and karma package in detail, but should adm-zip be in direct dependencies, if we are generating report similar to extension, not sure about this though.
I used bob to check where it is used it gave back following result
karma-accessibility-checker — adm-zip is used only inside ACReporterXLSX.js at line 160. That file ships in the published package and runs when a user generates a report. adm-zip must be in dependencies. There are no test files in this package that use it independently.

cypress-accessibility-checker — adm-zip is used in two places:

src/lib/common/report/ACReporterXLSX.js — runtime report generation → needs dependencies
test/cypress.config.js — reading XLSX cells during tests → needs devDependencies

Good catch. I think this is a leftover. It was originally a peer dependency because of the security vulnerabilities but we can move them now to regular dependencies

tombrunet added 11 commits August 28, 2026 15:18

chore(all): Replace exceljs due to lack of maintenance

ef66c56

exceljs error

826be74

Fix colors / tables

90425fc

Fix cypress error

5c5e2cb

fix test

32f61c1

tombrunet marked this pull request as ready for review August 31, 2026 19:00

tombrunet mentioned this pull request Aug 31, 2026

chore(all): Update dependencies flagging from npm audits #2630

Merged

nam-singh self-requested a review September 1, 2026 12:18

nam-singh previously approved these changes Sep 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

nam-singh reviewed Sep 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

Move adm-zip to dep

8069925

tombrunet dismissed nam-singh’s stale review via 8069925 September 1, 2026 18:11

tombrunet merged commit e5a3e7f into main-4.x Sep 1, 2026
17 checks passed

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chore(all): Replace exceljs with write-excel-file - #2628

chore(all): Replace exceljs with write-excel-file#2628
tombrunet merged 12 commits into
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exceljs-replace

tombrunet commented Aug 28, 2026 •

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tombrunet commented Aug 28, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Summary

Motivation

Changes

Core logic — common/module/src/report/ACReporterXLSX.ts

Extension — accessibility-checker-extension/

E2E test helper — accessibility-checker-extension/test/

package.json peer / direct dependency updates

Pre-built JS artefacts regenerated

Testing checklist

XLSX report output (accessibility-checker Node.js)

Browser extension (accessibility-checker-extension)

E2E tests (accessibility-checker-extension/test)

Downstream packages

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tombrunet commented Aug 28, 2026 •

edited

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Core logic — `common/module/src/report/ACReporterXLSX.ts`

Extension — `accessibility-checker-extension/`

E2E test helper — `accessibility-checker-extension/test/`

`package.json` peer / direct dependency updates