how to create and download excel document using asp.net

How to create and download excel document using asp.net ?The purpose is to use xml, linq or whatever to send an excel document to a customer via a browser.Edit : Use caseThe customer load a gridview ( made with ajax framework ) in a browser, the gridview is directly linked to an sql database. I put a button ‘…

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how to create and download excel document using asp.net

How to create and download excel document using asp.net ?
The purpose is to use xml, linq or whatever to send an excel document to a customer via a browser.
Edit : Use case
The customer load a gridview ( made with ajax framework ) in a browser, the gridview is directly linked to an sql database. I put a button ‘export to excel’ to let customer save this gridview data on his computer ansd i would like to launch a clean download of an excel.
The solutions proposed here are not clean, like send an html document and change the header to excel document etc, i’m searching a simple solution on codeplex right now, i will let you know.
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Starter kit
First i have downloaded the Open XML Format SDK 2.0.
It comes with 3 useful tools in :
C:Program FilesOpen XML Format SDKV2.0tools
DocumentReflector.exe wich auto generate the c# to build a spreadsheet from the code.
OpenXmlClassesExplorer.exe display Ecma specification and the class documentation (using an MSDN style format).
OpenXmlDiff.exe graphically compare two Open XML files and search for errors.
I suggest anyone who begin to rename .xlsx to .zip, so you can see the XML files who drive our spreadsheet ( for the example our sheets are in “xlworksheets” ).

The code
Disclaimer : I have stolen all the code from an MSDN technical article ;D
The following code use an *.xlsx template i made manually to be able to modify it.
Namespaces references
using System.IO; using System.Xml; using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging; using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet; using DocumentFormat.OpenXml; // Database object DataClassesDataContext db = new DataClassesDataContext(); // Make a copy of the template file. File.Copy(@”C:inetpubwwwrootproject.WebClientsHandlersoxml-tpllivreurs.xlsx”, @”C:inetpubwwwrootproject.WebClientsHandlersoxml-tplgenerated.xlsx”, true); // Open the copied template workbook. using (SpreadsheetDocument myWorkbook = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(@”C:inetpubwwwrootproject.WebClientsHandlersoxml-tplgenerated.xlsx”, true)) // Access the main Workbook part, which contains all references. WorkbookPart workbookPart = myWorkbook.WorkbookPart; // Get the first worksheet. WorksheetPart worksheetPart = workbookPart.WorksheetParts.ElementAt(2); // The SheetData object will contain all the data. SheetData sheetData = worksheetPart.Worksheet.GetFirstChild(); // Begining Row pointer int index = 2; // Database results var query = from t in db.Clients select t; // For each item in the database, add a Row to SheetData. foreach (var item in query) // Cell related variable string Nom = item.Nom; // New Row Row row = new Row(); row.RowIndex = (UInt32)index; // New Cell Cell cell = new Cell(); cell.DataType = CellValues.InlineString; // Column A1, 2, 3 … and so on cell.CellReference = “A”+index; // Create Text object Text t = new Text(); t.Text = Nom; // Append Text to InlineString object InlineString inlineString = new InlineString(); inlineString.AppendChild(t); // Append InlineString to Cell cell.AppendChild(inlineString); // Append Cell to Row row.AppendChild(cell); // Append Row to SheetData sheetData.AppendChild(row); // increase row pointer index++; // save worksheetPart.Worksheet.Save(); } I havent finished yet, my second job is to auto download the spreadsheet after modification.

Finally, i redirect the user to my generated spredsheet (from my ashx)
context.Response.Redirect(“Oxml-tpl/generated.xlsx”);
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just set Response.ContentType = “application/vnd.ms-excel” and your page will rendered as an excel sheet on the clients browser
Sample code here
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Kindly refer to the following good post:
Reading and Writing Excel Spreadsheets Using ADO.NET C# DbProviderFactory
http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2006/05/26/2973.aspx
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There are quite a few ways of handling this, depending on how extensive the Excel functionality is. Binoj’s answer works if the Excel is just a spreadsheet and has no direct Excel functionality built in. The client can add functionality, concats, etc. These are “dumb” excel docs until the client does soemthing.
To create a more full featured Excel doc, you havve two basic choices that I can think of offhand.
Use either the office components (re: bad) to create an excel document, or a third party component, like SoftArtisan’s ExcelWriter. Great component, but there is a cost.
Use a control on the page that allows export to Excel. Most vendors of ASSP.NET controls have this functionality on their grids.
Option #1 allows you pretty much all functionality of Excel. Option #2 is a bit more limited, at least in the controls I have tried.
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Good article on how top export to excel from Erika Ehrli http://blogs.msdn.com/erikaehrli/archive/2009/01/30/how-to-export-data-to-excel-from-an-asp-net-application-avoid-the-file-format-differ-prompt.aspx

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