opening an excel file through Java

[Sekhar Kapoor]

Hi,
I have a file( word or excel) in my web folder. In my application I have a hyperlink. On click of which I have to open the excel in such a way that it should allow to open or save it at my desired location through the open/save dialog box.
Can anyone help me out???

[Ulf Dittmer]

That's what the Content-Disposition HTTP header does. Check JspAndExcel for more detail.

[Sekhar Kapoor]

Hi,
I am using the following code ::
String filePath = "C:\\Abc.xls";
File f1 = new File(filePath);
response.setContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=\"Abc.xls\"");
InputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f1 );
byte[] bytearray = new byte[(int) f1.length()];
ServletOutputStream outs = response.getOutputStream();
fis.read(bytearray);
outs.write(bytearray);
outs.flush();
outs.close();
fis.close();

yet it is not working. Do you have any suggestion whjere I am going wrong. If possible can you provide some pseudo code which will help me understand the functionality better..

[Campbell Ritchie]

What happens in your exception handling?

Are you sure you have your file in the root directory on "C:\\"?

[Sekhar Kapoor]

The whole code I have given is within a try block and have
catch(IOException ioe){
e.printStackTrace();
}
in the catch part.
ALso the file is in C rive.

[Ulf Dittmer]

yet it is not working.

What does this mean? What do you think should be happening, and where does the observed behavior deviate from that?

[Sekhar Kapoor]

The page is refreshing but still neither the download box nor the excel is opening.I had given system.out so I know that the code is getting executed. yet what I need to achieve is not happening.

[Ulf Dittmer]

So what does the browser receive, then?

[Sekhar Kapoor]

Today I did some modifications to the code. I am now forwarding to a jsp where I have this code:

try
{
String filename = "C:\\Abc.xls";
// set the http content type to "APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM
response.setContentType("APPLICATION/MSEXCEL");
// initialize the http content-disposition header to
// indicate a file attachment with the default filename
// "myFile.txt"
String disHeader = "Attachment;Filename=\"Abc.xls\"";
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", disHeader);
// transfer the file byte-by-byte to the response object
File fileToDownload = new File(filename);
FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(fileToDownload);
int i;
/*while ((i=fileInputStream.read())!=-1)
{
out.write(i);
} */
out.write(fileInputStream.read());
fileInputStream.close();
out.close();
}
catch(Exception e)
// file IO errors
{
e.printStackTrace();
}

This is opening the the dialog box. But when I am rying to open or save the excel it is opening in one cell with some encode format........
Why is this happening and what is the solution..

[Sekhar Kapoor]

At last download is working for the excel. But theres one new error coming up. When I try to open the file. It says there is an error Excel repairs the error and then shows the data as a repaired file.
The error says, " Excel tried to recover your formulas and values, but some data may have been lost or corrupted."
However the excel is opening.

[Ulf Dittmer]

It's not a good idea to stream binary content from a JSP, and practically impossible to get right. I am guessing that the problem would go away if you used a servlet instead.