There are several issues with WebFOCUS and Excel and there are several possible solutions. I haven't worked out which combination works best.

- Suppress blank web browser window when running an Excel report
- Redirection setting is supposed to fix this

- Opening a second Excel report with the same file name
- Redirection setting is supposed to fix this

- Web browser pop-up about the wrong format (The file you are trying to open, '[filename]', is in a different format than specified by the file extension)
- Extension Hardening registry modification fixes this

- Web browser prompts for credentials when trying to open a WebFOCUS Excel report
- Modifying the Compatibility Mode for Excel is supposed to fix this

I've applied the Compatibility Mode for Excel and the Extension Hardening registry modification and I think those two issues are fixed. I'm having trouble with opening a second Excel report with the same file name, particularly when drilling down within Excel. I've tried ON TABLE PCHOLD AS NNNN FORMAT EXL2K where I change NNNN for different names, but I still get the error.

As well, one of the redirection settings causes the Excel report to open in the browser window instead of Excel...

Type 'webfocus using excel display formats' in google and choose the first option.

-excel in browser
In Windows 7, Microsoft removed the desktop settings that support opening worksheets in the browser. This means that to change this behavior, you can no longer simply navigate to the Folder Options dialog box, but that you must change a registry setting. This change is documented in the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article ID 927009 at the following Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927009
Note: This works the same for both EXL2K and EXL07 formats. The only difference is the selection of file type based on the version of Excel output you will be generating.

-excel file name (or any other)
name
Specifies a file name for the generated workbook.
Note: The AS name will be used for PCHOLD only when the Save Report option is set to YES for the .xlsx file extension in the WebFOCUS Client Redirection Settings. When the report is opened in the browser, users will be prompted to open or save report output with the designated file name. For reports opened in the Excel 2007/2010 application, the generated workbook will retain the designated AS name. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual.

-also
Note that if you selected the Save Report check box in the configuration pane of the WebFOCUS Administration Console (under Redirection Settings), you will be prompted whether to save or open the output file. If the procedure contained a PCHOLD command that specified an AS name for the output file, the name is retained if you choose to save the file. If no AS name was specified, a random filename is generated.

Excel 2007 does not give the file extension error (if you don't want all your users to change the registry value).

Also look in the webfocus client administration manual and scroll down to the changing redirection settings section which has excel considerations.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: J,

Alright, after a little digging and testing...

-redirect
If set to yes, default wfservlet name.
If set to no, random name.

-save report
If set to yes, allows PCHOLD AS NAME FORMAT
If set to no, does not allow the AS NAME.
I am assuming if you want the excel report to open in the browser, this will have to be no.

-settings
EXL07-.xlsx
EXL2K SET WEBARCHIVE=OFF (will appear as .xls when run)-.xht (still produces extension error and when you try to save it, it defaults to html format)
EXL2K SET WEBARCHIVE=ON (will appear as .xmh when run)-.xmh (still produces extension error and when you try to save it, it defaults to html format)
EXCEL-.xls

It would be nice if they made EXL07 up to par with EXL2K

-get rid of blank page
As far as the blank page, you can have the report output into a hidden frame. That way a blank page won't appear.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: J,

J, thanks very much for all this! I will try to digest this.

One unfortunate aspect of playing with the WF client "Save Reports" setting is that it has more than one effect - what if I don't want the spreadsheet to open within the browser window, but I do want AS name?

Does any of this fix the problem with drilldowns within an Excel spreadsheet?

spreadsheets won't open in the browser window for windows 7 unless you change a setting on your computer.

Setting save to yes should allow the as name

if you do allow the excel sheet to open in the browser then setting save to yes will undo that.



I don't know about drilldowns? Perhaps you are referring to a different post.

IIRC, we apply the registry settings in our domain group policy, so all users get it automatically. Not ideal, but it saves us a lot of trouble.

technical memo 4690:

Redirection and Excel Drilldown Reports
The WebFOCUS Client can use redirection when passing the report output to the client
application. When redirection is enabled, the WebFOCUS Client saves report output in a
temporary directory when a request is executed. Then, an HTTP call is made from the browser
to retrieve the temporary stored output for display. When redirection is disabled, the report
output is sent directly to the browser without any buffering.
16 WebFOCUS
Support for Drilldowns With EXL07 Report OutputWhen redirection is enabled, drilldowns within Excel reports will work differently depending
on whether the workbook is opened in the browser or in the Excel application. For information
about launching Excel in the browser or as an application, see Viewing Excel Workbooks in
the Browser vs. the Excel Application on page 6.
For workbooks opened in the browser: Drilldowns will work with redirection enabled
because the browser session has access to the HTTP header and/or cookies that need
to be sent with the HTTP request to the WebFOCUS Client in order to obtain the redirected
target workbook file.
For workbooks opened outside the browser in the Excel application: The redirection
context is not retained by the Excel application, so drilldown reports will not have the
information required to access the redirected files. The initial workbook will open within
Excel, but the target drilldown workbook will not open and you will receive a message
stating You are not allowed to access this viewer file.
Redirection is disabled by default for the .xlsx file extension because this enables drilldowns
to run successfully whether the user machine is configured to launch Excel in the browser
or as an application outside of the browser.
For additional information about redirection options see WebFOCUS Administration Console
Client Settings described in the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual.



So basically turn redirection off and save reports on it looks like...

This EFL (English as a first language) speaker has a hard time understanding English like this.

"Redirection is disabled by default for the .xlsx file extension" - I thought WF generates xht and only when you save them do they become xls or xlsx... Or, is this for EXL07? We're not convinced here that EXL07 is equal to or better than EXL2K.

Thanks for the tech memo reference - more to absorb.

haha, sorry to throw all this at you. This was made keeping exl07 in mind, but I "think" this carries over to drilldowns in other formats. I have not messed with this as much but I guess the important thing is to watch out for the redirection settings effects on drilldowns.

We are experiencing this same issue with EXCEL 2010 and drilldowns creating blank pages. The mime file already has redirection settings set to NO for .xls, .xlsx, .xht, and .xml, and we still have the problem. I tried changing the save reports to YES for .xls and .xlsx, but the developer claimed it made things worse.

Is there anything else I need to consider?

Elysa
Social Security Admin
WebFOCUS 7.7.03
Dev Studio 7.7.03
Windows 7

I wanted to add this to my previous post ;

The developer added that when she tried to do the Save As option it’s defaulted to Web Page(*.htm;*.html). Does this make a difference?