Transferring an excel file through HTTP

[Chris]

Hi everyone,
I have a question about clients (on windows) uploading Excel
spreadsheets (.xls) to a unix server. These spreadsheets contain
information that wil be used to store and update a database. I need to
be able to safely pass the information in the spreadsheet so that I
can parse it and update accordingly. However, when I upload through my
web page, the text that once was a nicely formatted excel spreadsheet
becomes jarbled and illegible. Passing the information (presumably
through a large string) messes it up understandably as there are text
format issues and such. I've explored such things as the COM and
win32com modules but am a little hesitant as my CGI script is not
operating on a windows platform. I'm using Python 2.2. Can someone
point me in the right direction? Thanks!

Chris