[flexcoders] How to write a file on the server and access it with FileReference mechanism ?

[Farid SALAH]

Hi All,

I'm using the classic Tomcat/BlazeDS - Flex environment.
What I'm doing is exporting a DataGrid and AdvancedDatagrid to Excel  
files.
I generate a matching excel file on the server and download it using  
specific servlets.

The thing I want to do is generate the same file on the server and  
return a path which can be recognized by a URLRequest to be used by  
the FileReference.

Basically it would go like this:

    <mx:RemoteObject destination="ExcelExportService"  
id="ExcelExportService" showBusyCursor="true"
        fault="excelFaultHandler(event)"  
result="excelFileNameHandler(event)">
    </mx:RemoteObject>

            private function exportToExcel():void {
                ExcelExportService.getExcelFileName(statParams); // 
some params i use on the server side
            }

            private function excelFaultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void {
                trace("Excel creation failed !");
            }

            public function  
excelFileNameHandler(event:ResultEvent):void {
                exportFilename = event.result as String;
                if (exportFilename == null || exportFilename.length  
== 0) {
                    trace("Empty or non existent file !");
                } else {
                    downloadExcelFile(exportFilename);
                }
            }

            private function  
downloadExcelFile(fileToDownload:String):void   {
                var fileName:String = UrlUtils.getAppBaseUrl() + "/"  
+ fileToDownload;

                var urlReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest(fileName);
                var templateFileRef:FileReference = new  
FileReference();
                // Lots of event listeners omitted
                templateFileRef.download(urlReq);
            }

<mx:HBox horizontalAlign="right" width="100%">
    <!-- mx:Label id="testLabel" text="Test Label"/-->
    <mx:Button id="excelButton" label="Export to excel"  
click="exportToExcel()" icon="{AssetManager.btnExcel}"/>
</mx:HBox>



Has anybody any idea on how to do it ?

        Thanks in advance

Farid