Yes, I set the mime type to application/vnd.ms-excel. Additionally the
request looks like
"/path/to/reports/report.xls?parameter1=1¶meter2=2", where
/path/to/reports/* is mapped to my Excel sheet producing servlet. I
think I found out that with this combination it works* for IE (which
seems to ignore the mime-type) AND other browsers (which respect the
mime-type the servlet specifies).
* "Works" of course with the exception of cases where IE sends two
requests to load the file.
One more thing I found out: this loading Excel sheets twice problem
seems to happen less often for request where my servlet sends the header
earlier (response.setContentType(...)):
...
HSSFWorkBook wb=new HSSFWorkBook();
// fill workbook, create lots of rows and cells
reponse.setContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
wb.write(response.getOutputStream());
...
produces the problem more often than:
...
reponse.setContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
HSSFWorkBook wb=new HSSFWorkBook();
// fill workbook, create lots of rows and cells
wb.write(response.getOutputStream());
...
Best Regards,
Christoph J�ger
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew C. Oliver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 2:59 PM
> To: POI Users List
> Subject: Re: IE loads Excel-Sheet twice
>
>
> You are setting the mimetype to application/vnd.ms-excel (or
> something very
> close to that...I forget the exact string)?
>
> I always found that the different buggy versions of IE worked
> best when I
> mapped *.xls to a servlet, used the /folders/as/parameters
> and passed the
> mime type.
>
> Each release of IE and Office has different strange bugs when
> used in combo.
> Its pretty odd that Excel works better with Netscape and Mozilla!
>
> -Andy
>
> On 7/22/03 2:54 AM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >
> > You might well be right - but that only intensifies the mystery :
> >
> > - why doesn't it send a 'HEAD' request? (i sniffed the packets - the
> > requests are almost identical GETs), and
> >
> > - why does it only do that after a bit of time? it
> certainly doesn't happen
> > on quick responses! and it doesn't seem to make the second
> request if a
> > huge file is sent back straight away, but still does it if
> a tiny file
> > takes a while... that's what led me to think it was some
> sort of a time out
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > e.net To:
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > cc:
> > 22/07/03 03:54 Subject: RE: IE loads
> > Excel-Sheet twice
> > Please respond to
> > poi-user
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > You are mis-interpreting the reason for the double
> download. It has nothing
> > to do with a timeout.
> >
> > The first download is from IE, which examines the header of
> the file to
> > determine that the file really contains an Excel spreadsheet.
> >
> > The second download is from Excel itself, which may be
> embedded inside IE
> > or
> > launched in a separate window (it depends on registry settings).
> >
> > You will not get the double download if you open directly
> in Excel. (Did
> > you
> > know you can go into Excel, choose File | Open from the
> menu bar, and type
> > in a URL like
> >
> http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/showattachment.cgi?attach_id
> =2551). In
> > this situation, the file gets downloaded only one time.
> >
> > Here is something that I can't figure out. It should work
> from the command
> > line as well. (Open a command window and give the command
> >
> > c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel
> >
> "http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=2551";
> >
> > This should work but actually downloads an error page.
> Probably because
> > Excel actually asks for
> >
> "http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/showattachment.cgi?attach_i
> d=2551.xls"
> > which Bugzilla does not understand.
> >
> > None of this trivia is really very important. But it may help you to
> > diagnose problems. One thing to consider - the first
> download may not
> > consume the entire output stream. IE closes the first
> download as soon as
> > it
> > determines that the file is valid for Excel. Another thing
> - IE and Excel
> > will often ignore whatever you have set for mime type. It
> determines that
> > the file is Excel by examining the output stream header.
> And the last thing
> > to consider is that you may not always get a double
> download. For example,
> > I
> > gave two methods of opening an .xls over the web (directly
> from Excel) and
> > neither will cause the double download.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 11:03 AM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: IE loads Excel-Sheet twice
> >
> >
> > I have indeed seen this behaviour - IE has some internal
> timeout which it
> > reaches on longer operations and then 'cleverly' tries to
> get it again...
> >
> > However, there are no simple ways of solving it, i've
> personally done it in
> > a completely async way (which might be a bit of an
> overkill), where browser
> > polls the page for the export, which performs the export in
> a threaded
> > manner, and only attempts to return the big file once it's ready.
> >
> > so, simplified:
> >
> > 1.
> > start exporting the file in a thread, get it's id and
> return that to the
> > browser with aim to refresh:
> > i.e
> > <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content
> > ="15,url=my_export_generator.jsp?taskId=123">
> >
> > 2.
> > then in your jsp, just check if your thread's done (maybe
> saved its details
> > in some cache), if it is, simply return the content... if
> not.. go back to
> > step.1
> >
> > - this way you give ie no chance of making you start the
> export twice,
> > (unless it takes a very long time to do step 1)
> >
> > ... hope that helps...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > .com To:
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > cc:
> > 21/07/03 15:33 Subject: Re: IE loads
> > Excel-Sheet twice
> > Please respond to
> > poi-user
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > For some reason IE sends a request twice. It was something
> I ran into as
> > well, however, I never ran into an issue where session
> variables were
> > unaccessible. So I have no idea what that could be.
> >
> > Christoph Jaeger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Hi,
> >
> > I apologize if this is a bit off topic, but I thought
> someone on this
> > list may have experienced the same problems and found a solution
> > already.
> >
> > I use POI to generate reports from a database. POI is used
> in a servlet,
> > which serves the Excel sheet to a web-browser.
> >
> > Everything is fine for small sheets (several hundred to a
> few thousand
> > rows). The result is just as expected. But when I try to do a bigger
> > query (say, 7000 rows) IE behaves strangely: first a
> request is sent to
> > the server to generate the Excel file. This file is
> downloaded (as it
> > seems), but when the next page comes up in IE, showing
> Excel, the Excel
> > program sends a second request to load the sheet. This
> time, the session
> > information (included in a cookie) is "forgotten", and so
> the query does
> > not work (does only work for logged in users, but without session
> > information I can not determine the user).
> >
> > The same thing works without any problems on my Linux box
> using Galeon
> > as a web browser (and Gnumeric or Open Office to view the
> Excel sheet).
> >
> > Has anyone on this list already experienced a similar problem?
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Christoph J�ger
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > This communication is for informational purposes only. It
> is not intended as
> > an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any
> financial instrument
> > or as an official confirmation of any transaction. All
> market prices, data
> > and other information are not warranted as to completeness
> or accuracy and
> > are subject to change without notice. Any comments or
> statements made herein
> > do not necessarily reflect those of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., its
> > subsidiaries and affiliates.
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> Andrew C. Oliver
> http://www.superlinksoftware.com/poi.jsp
> Custom enhancements and Commercial Implementation for Jakarta POI
>
http://jakarta.apache.org/poi
For Java and Excel, Got POI?
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