Question

I’m trying to set up a page that downloads a sql table and gives the user a prompt to save it to excel. This will be used in the horrible thing called IE7.

The problem is that instead of downloading the file that I know exists, it generates the asp page into the xls file, and titles it “DataManager.xls”. So if I open that, I get the header bar of the asp page, and if I leave out the resonse.end I get the page body and footer. But all my research says this code should be downloading an existing file, not creating one.

None of my response.write tracers work. But strSQL is being run properly, because that generates the file.

        dim strSQL

    if(Request.QueryString("submitbutton") = "Download") then
        dim fn
        dim FPath
        strSQL = "EXECute [TABLE2EXCEL] 'S007\SQLSRV','" & UCase(request.QueryString("SelTABLE")) & "','" & UCase(request.QueryString("SelTABLE")) & "','" & Replace(Request.ServerVariables("LOGON_USER"),"CORP\","") & "'"
        fn = cnt.execute(strSQL)

        response.write strSQL
        response.write fn
        response.write FPath

         Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel" ' arbitrary 
        FPath = fn 
        Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=ASSOCIATEROSTERFeb102012909AMNBKMZEJ.xls" '& fn 

        Set adoStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") 
        adoStream.Open() 
        adoStream.Type = 2
        adoStream.LoadFromFile("\\s007\folder\DataFactory\ASSOCIATEROSTERFeb102012909AMNBKMZEJ.xls")'(FPath) 
        Response.BinaryWrite adoStream.Read() 
        adoStream.Close 
        Set adoStream = Nothing 
Response.End 
end if

And just to be complete on data, here’s my sql code:

ALTER procedure [dbo].[TABLE2EXCEL]
(
    @db_name    varchar(100),
    @table_name varchar(100),   
    @file_name  varchar(100),
    @NBK    varchar(10)
)
as

--Generate column names as a recordset
declare @columns varchar(8000), @sql varchar(8000), @data_file varchar(100)

select 
    @columns=coalesce(@columns+',','')+column_name+' as '+column_name 
from 
    information_schema.columns
where 
    table_name=@table_name
select @columns=''''''+replace(replace(@columns,' as ',''''' as '),',',',''''')

declare @TimeStamp varchar(50)
SELECT @TimeStamp = Replace(Replace(CAST(CONVERT(datetime,getdate())as varchar),':',''),' ','') + @NBK

print @TimeStamp

--Set folder for output file
set @file_name = '\\s007\folder\DataFactory\' + @file_name + @TimeStamp + '.xls'

--Create a dummy file to have actual data
select @data_file='\\s007\folder\DataFactory\data_fildat' + @TimeStamp + '.xls'--substring(@file_name,1,len(@file_name)-charindex('\',reverse(@file_name)))+'\data_filez.xls'
print @data_file
--Generate column names in the passed EXCEL file
set @sql='exec master..xp_cmdshell ''bcp " select * from (select '+@columns+') as t" queryout "'+@file_name+'" -c -S S007\SQLSRV -U userlogin -P passwordisbestpassword -k'''
exec(@sql)

--Generate data in the dummy file
set @sql='exec master..xp_cmdshell ''bcp " select * from '+@table_name+'" queryout "'+@data_file+'" -c  -S S007\SQLSRV -U userlogin -P passwordisbestpassword -k'''

exec(@sql)
PRINT @sql 
PRINT @data_file 

--Copy dummy file to passed EXCEL file
set @sql= 'exec master..xp_cmdshell ''type "'+@data_file+'" >> "'+@file_name+'"'''
exec(@sql)

--Delete dummy file 
set @sql= 'exec master..xp_cmdshell ''del '+@data_file+''''
exec(@sql)


return @file_name

Answer 1

Usually this is done by generating a regular HTML table with the data in it and sending out the Excel MIME type.

Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"

(then output the HTML table)

See this question for an example: Export data to excel file from Classic ASP failing