71 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
71 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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# Internet Explorer
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Despite the efforts to deprecate the pertinent operating systems, IE is still
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very popular, required for various government and corporate websites throughout
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the world. The modern download strategies are not available in older versions
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of IE, but there are alternative approaches.
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## Strategies
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#### IE10 and IE11 File API
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As part of the File API implementation, IE10 and IE11 provide the `msSaveBlob`
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and `msSaveOrOpenBlob` functions to save blobs to the client computer. This
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approach is embedded in `XLSX.writeFile` and no additional shims are necessary.
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#### Flash-based Download
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It is possible to write to the file system using a SWF. `Downloadify` library
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implements one solution. Since a genuine click is required, there is no way to
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force a download. The demo generates a button for each desired output format.
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#### ActiveX-based Download
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Through the `Scripting.FileSystemObject` object model, a script in the VBScript
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scripting language can write to an arbitrary path on the filesystem. The shim
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includes a special `IE_SaveFile` function to write binary strings to file. It
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attempts to write to the Downloads folder or Documents folder or Desktop.
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This approach can be triggered, but it requires the user to enable ActiveX. It
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is embedded as a strategy in `writeFile` and used only if the shim script is
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included in the page and the relevant features are enabled on the target system.
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## Demo
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The included demo starts from an array of arrays, generating an editable HTML
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table with `aoa_to_sheet` and adding it to the page:
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```js
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var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(aoa);
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var html_string = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html(ws, { id: "table", editable: true });
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document.getElementById("container").innerHTML = html_string;
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```
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The included download buttons use `table_to_book` to construct a new workbook
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based on the table and `writeFile` to force a download:
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```js
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var elt = document.getElementById('table');
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var wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(elt, { sheet: "Sheet JS" });
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XLSX.writeFile(wb, filename);
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```
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The shim is included in the HTML page, unlocking the ActiveX pathway if enabled
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in browser settings.
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The corresponding SWF buttons are displayed in environments where Flash is
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available and `Downloadify` is supported. The easiest solution involves writing
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to a Base64 string and passing to the library:
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```js
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Downloadify.create(element_id, {
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/* the demo includes the other options required by Downloadify */
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filename: "test.xlsx",
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data: function() { return XLSX.write(wb, {bookType:"xlsx", type:'base64'}); },
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dataType: 'base64'
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});
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```
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[](https://github.com/SheetJS/js-xlsx)
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