>From the FAQ:

7. I'm trying to stream an XLS file from a servlet and I'm having some
trouble. What's the problem?

The problem usually manifests itself as the junk characters being shown
on screen. The problem persists even though you have set the correct
mime type.

The short answer is, don't depend on IE to display a binary file type
properly if you stream it via a servlet. Every minor version of IE has
different bugs on this issue.

The problem in most versions of IE is that it does not use the mime type
on the HTTP response to determine the file type; rather it uses the file
extension on the request. Thus you might want to add a .xls to your
request string. For example
http://yourserver.com/myServelet.xls?param1=xx. This is easily
accomplished through URL mapping in any servlet container. Sometimes a
request like http://yourserver.com/myServelet?param1=xx&dummy=file.xls
is also known to work.

To guarantee opening the file properly in Excel from IE, write out your
file to a temporary file under your web root from your servelet. Then
send an http response to the browser to do a client side redirection to
your temp file. (Note that using a server side redirect using
RequestDispatcher will not be effective in this case)

Note also that when you request a document that is opened with an
external handler, IE sometimes makes two requests to the webserver. So
if your generating process is heavy, it makes sense to write out to a
temporary file, so that multiple requests happen for a static file.

None of this is particular to Excel. The same problem arises when you
try to generate any binary file dynamically to an IE client. For
example, if you generate pdf files using FOP, you will come across many
of the same issues. 

ciao Bodo

> -----Urspr�ngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Dasmeet S Ahluwalia [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 4. M�rz 2004 05:43
> An: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Betreff: Issue with POI - HSSF
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am facing a problem with HSSFWorkbook...
> 
> Actually i am using this POI for handling Export functionality in JSP 
> reports. 
> I have a link "Export" clicking which i get the data and export it to 
> excel file. For this I am using ServletOutputStream.
> 
> the pseudocode is....
>         res.setContentType("application/octet-stream");
>         res.setHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; 
> filename=\"abc.xls\""); 
>         ServletOutputStream sOutStream = res.getOutputStream();
>         .
>         .
>         .
>         .
>         HSSFWorkbook wbExlFile = new HSSFWorkbook();
>         wbExlFile.write(sOutStream);
> 
> Everything works fine....the problem lies in display of "File 
> Download 
> Popup". Somehow it is displayed twice.
> Can someone help me to figure out why this is happening?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Regards,
> Dasmeet Singh. 
> 
> 

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