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I want to create an XLS export file. However, the output is equal to the XML-output.
(At least in preview mode - using the real thing doesn't work yet, due to #1008240: Change 'data' column to a 'big' 'text' column
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| #4 | fixtures_20113217.xml_.txt | 16.85 KB | johnv |
| #4 | fixtures_20112817.xls.txt | 25.05 KB | johnv |
| #4 | fixtures_20112817.csv_.txt | 1.5 KB | johnv |
Comments
Comment #1
steven jones commentedThis really shouldn't be the case. Test required.
Comment #2
johnvSteven,
an update on #1:
- issue /node/1008240 has been resolved.
- the XML-output does have an .xls suffix. So, clicking the file will cause Excel to start. You have to confirm a error message, but then, a clean XLS-spreadsheet pops up. So, at least Excel 2007 knows how to read xml-files. Haven't tested it on older releases.
Comment #3
steven jones commentedCan you attach an xls export that you are seeing to this issue, the xls output should be in some form of XML but shouldn't be exactly like the XML plugin's output.
Comment #4
johnvPlease find attached 3 formats of the same report. I added the suffix .txt, otherwise I couldn't upload 2 of 3 files.
I set the protperty 'provide as file' to Yes.
Comment #5
steven jones commentedThe xls file is basically just a HTML table in a very simple HTML document that excel can understand. The output from the XML and xls style plugins you've attached is different.
Is the issue that in preview mode they aren't different?
Comment #6
johnvIt seems that indeed both variants are OK, but I do get an error when opening the xls-file in Excel. I'll explain:
Regarding preview mode: Today I tested again, and the outputs are different, even only after a change between XML and XLS and pressing [update], and not [save]. So, either I mistake, or the issue 1008240 did some magic (I presume the first).
Regarding production mode: After applying 1008240, I could export a normal file. Normally I work with Excel 2007. When I open the xls-output, I get the following error (roughly, I translated it to English). I can ignore the error and the file is shown OK. This also made me think the file was wrong. Today I tested the same xls-file on Excel 2000, and the error does not show.
"The file you want to open does not have the format as designated by the suffix. Check if the file is not corrupt and has a trustfull source. Do you want to open the file?"
Comment #7
steven jones commentedChanging title to reflect issue
Comment #8
steven jones commentedI'm not sure there's much we can do about this. Reading about the formats it seems that Excel formats are quite a bit more complicated than what we have in the module at the moment, so I'm not sure of the way forward for this issue.
Either we spin this functionality out into another module that can take the burden of all the features, or we just put warnings on the Excel output we have at the moment, saying that you may get warnings when opening.
Comment #9
jamsilver commentedYeah, I agree - given that our output is still read OK by Excel, it doesn't seem like a good idea to put so much work in just to avoid a warning. If someone finds that an export is being mis-interpreted by Excel, then that's another matter, and then we could think about working on a more involved solution (something which should definitely go into another module I think).
Comment #10
steven jones commentedMarking as 'won't fix' for the above reasons.
Comment #11
johnvJust for reference for myself and others with the same user(!) error:
I now understand what might have happened, and how to produce the orrginal error:
- create a VDE display, and customize for XML file-output, using a difficult name e.g. with date placeholders
- create a second VDE display, customize for XML, and copy&paste the first filename.
Now you get an XML file with an XLS extension!
Comment #12
johnvComment #13
Drupa1ish commented