nivo_Z
asked on
Perl Spreadsheet::WriteExcel : Output to browser - Always opens empty
HI,
I'm writing a Perl based WEB application and I want to display Excel spreadsheet with data in the browser.
When I run the below example an Excel spreadsheet opens in the browser (I'm using IE 5.5, Windows 2000) but it is empty.
No matter what I tried, it always opens empty.
What is the problem?
Also, what is the meaning of the last line in the example description ("This can be useful for CGIs which have a Content-type of application/vnd.ms-excel")
Thanks.
Following is the description and the example:
2.4.6 Spreadsheet::WriteExcel Example: Output to browser
You can redirect the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel output to STDOUT using the special Perl filehandle "-". This can be useful for CGIs which have a Content-type of application/vnd.ms-excel:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel;
print "Content-type: application/vnd.ms-excel\n
my $workbook = Spreadsheet::WriteExcel->n
$workbook->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
I'm writing a Perl based WEB application and I want to display Excel spreadsheet with data in the browser.
When I run the below example an Excel spreadsheet opens in the browser (I'm using IE 5.5, Windows 2000) but it is empty.
No matter what I tried, it always opens empty.
What is the problem?
Also, what is the meaning of the last line in the example description ("This can be useful for CGIs which have a Content-type of application/vnd.ms-excel")
Thanks.
Following is the description and the example:
2.4.6 Spreadsheet::WriteExcel Example: Output to browser
You can redirect the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel output to STDOUT using the special Perl filehandle "-". This can be useful for CGIs which have a Content-type of application/vnd.ms-excel:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel;
print "Content-type: application/vnd.ms-excel\n
my $workbook = Spreadsheet::WriteExcel->n
$workbook->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
The author is simply saying that the filehand "-" is useful when trying to direct output from a perl script that delivers a content type of "application/vnd.ms-excel"
ASKER
The thing is that when I don't direct the output to the browser and instead I create a spreadsheet on the local drive it works. I managed to create a spreadsheet and display the data successfully.
But this is a limitation because I want to allow access from any machine.
So, I guess that I have the required module.
But this is a limitation because I want to allow access from any machine.
So, I guess that I have the required module.
This is *possibly* due to a permissions issue.
Spreadsheet::WriteExcel needs to open a temporary file to operate. Returning a blank spreadsheet is a known symptom of IO::File not being able to open the temporary file for writing.
How should you proceed? Try writing a perl script which opens a file wherever your %TEMP is set to. Get it to put some text in the file. Run the script under mod_perl exactly as you do this Excel script. See if the file in %TEMP actually exists and contains what it should. If not, you have a permissions issue.
Spreadsheet::WriteExcel needs to open a temporary file to operate. Returning a blank spreadsheet is a known symptom of IO::File not being able to open the temporary file for writing.
How should you proceed? Try writing a perl script which opens a file wherever your %TEMP is set to. Get it to put some text in the file. Run the script under mod_perl exactly as you do this Excel script. See if the file in %TEMP actually exists and contains what it should. If not, you have a permissions issue.
ASKER
Problem found!
When I used:
$worksheet->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
Instead of:
$workbook->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
It worked!
When I used:
$worksheet->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
Instead of:
$workbook->write(0, 0, "Hi Excel!");
It worked!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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