Opening or downloading an excel file from aspx web page fails It doesn t open in application

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We have a solution that turns an Excel file from an ActiveReport-based report. In general, this works perfectly, however in some circumstances, for some incredibly bizarre reason, the downloading of the Excel file doesn't begin, and the Excel file instead opens in a web browser window without prompting the user to choose whether to open or save the created Excel file.

On a virtual machine powered by Windows Server 2019, our application is now executing. However, everything works well if I log in to the web server on that virtual machine from a different computer, launch the same program, and export the same report into an Excel file. I can easily access the Excel document in Excel or an Excel viewer when the web browser asks if I want to save or open it.

Another oddity is that not all servers hosting this application experience this issue. Additionally, it appears that similar issues arise if the server only has the Microsoft Office Excel viewer installed. This isn't always the case, though. It appears there are no issues if Excel's full version is installed.

We have tried everything that we have found. We have set the browser flags ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/browsers/how-to-set-ie-to-open-office-documents-in-office-program and https://www.thewindowsclub.com/make-internet-explorer-open-linked-office-documents-in-the-appropriate-office-program ) and went through dozens of web pages and reinstalled Excel Viewer.

Still, it seems that this problem is not related to browser flags at all, since this works fine in other servers even the browser flag values are not set in registry keys. So, to me, the problem seems to be in the web browser settings on the server. I just cannot imagine where. The web browser installed on the server is IE 11.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Oct 20, 2022 in Others by Kithuzzz
• 38,010 points
1,201 views

1 answer to this question.

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In regards to your first edit, the Content-Disposition header is crucial. This header is set to attachment in the current working copy. This informs the browser that the file is a download and has to be saved or opened with another application. Furthermore, it changes the filename to "ExcePreview.xls." The default value for Content-Disposition, if it is not set, is inline, which informs the browser that the content is or should be shown in a web page. As can be seen in your first screenshot, ExcelPreview.aspx is still the filename. There is no guarantee that this will happen, but certain systems may take into account the Content-Type header, disregard the aspx extension, sniff the content, and treat the response as a downloaded excel file.
answered Oct 20, 2022 by narikkadan
• 63,420 points

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