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[SOLVED] How to get EXL2K from WebFocus 8 using .Net?

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July 21, 2015, 10:19 AM
MartinM
[SOLVED] How to get EXL2K from WebFocus 8 using .Net?
Hello All,
We are attempting to get Excel 2000 and above reports through web service calls to WebFocus 8 from our .Net (C#) application. We have been successful at accessing HTML, PDF and Excel 97 reports via the same web service calls but are having problems accessing the Excel 2K and above reports. The Excel reports seem to be making it to a temporary location on the Web Focus 8 server. Is there some way of programatically getting these excel files from this temporary location. Unfortunately our .Net application does not have privilages on the WebFocus 8 server. Thanks.

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


WebFocus 8.0, Windows 8, Excel
July 22, 2015, 08:55 AM
Rob Bowen
You will probably need to blank out the IBIF_excelservurl parameter in the client Administration Console. This will cause the excel files to be built on the server.


WebFOCUS 8.1.04; SQL Server 2012; Windows 7; Windows Server 2012 R2;
July 23, 2015, 01:27 PM
MartinM
Thanks for your response @Rob Bowen. This is a global setting and our Admin team feels it could potentially have bigger ramifications. We were wondering is there a "less global" way of reaching the same end, i.e. can we do what you are advising but without changing a global setting? Thanks.


WebFocus 8.0, Windows 8, Excel
July 23, 2015, 02:02 PM
Darksider
Martin,

You can issue a SET EXCELSERVURL = '' within the procedure so it wont affect anything globally.


All the above
July 28, 2015, 09:21 AM
MartinM
Thanks @Darksider for your response, we applied that setting in our procedure (the fex file) but unfortunately it did not resolve the issue. I am still looking for a solution so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


WebFocus 8.0, Windows 8, Excel
July 28, 2015, 09:29 AM
MartinM
Just an FYI, I also have a case open with IBI - case # 21973008.
Just to reiterate when making the following web service calls:
....IBIRS_action=run&START_DT=20130501&END_DT=20130531&WFFMT=HTML -> this renders HTML just fine.
....IBIRS_action=run&START_DT=20130501&END_DT=20130531&WFFMT=PDF -> this renders PDF just fine.
....IBIRS_action=run&START_DT=20130501&END_DT=20130531&WFFMT=EXL97 -> this renders excel just fine.
....IBIRS_action=run&START_DT=20130501&END_DT=20130531&WFFMT=EXL2K -> this brings back no data - which is the issue we are having.
....IBIRS_action=run&START_DT=20130501&END_DT=20130531&WFFMT=EXL07 -> this brings back no data - which is the issue we are having.
Basically it is as if the formt EXL2K and higher versions of excel are not being recognized by the Web Focus 8 web service.
Has anyone else got this to work?
Would you be able to share what settings you adjusted (if any) to get excel to be returned from the web service.
Thanks.


WebFocus 8.0, Windows 8, Excel
July 28, 2015, 11:41 AM
MartinM
[SOLVED]
We found a solution to our issue in a previous IBI case opened by a team member about a year ago, as follows:
When using EXL2LK as the format parameter, the response object returns html with the path to the excel file in the temporary location.
This temporary location is where the files are placed when redirect is set to yes in the WebFocus admin console. The location returned will be something like location.replace("/ibi_apps/WFServlet?PG_REQTYPE=REDIRECT&PG_MRsaved=false&PG_F-
unc=GETBINARY&PG_File=xiakbsiv.xmh").
In your application code (c# in our case) you basically concatenate this location to the wefocus base location i.e. "http://myWebFOCUS:8080" to get something like "http://myWebFOCUS:8080/ibi_apps/WFServlet?PG_REQTYPE=REDIRECT&PG_MRsaved=false&PG_F-
unc=GETBINARY&PG_File=xiakbsiv.xmh".
All you have to do after that is make a call to the location e.g. Response.Redirect("http://myWebFOCUS:8080("/ibi_apps/WFServlet?PG_REQTYPE=REDIRECT&PG_MRsaved=false&PG_F-
unc=GETBINARY&PG_File=xiakbsiv.xmh") and it will render the excel report directly.


WebFocus 8.0, Windows 8, Excel