Exporting to Excel from a Modal Window

180

Pat posted over 16 years ago

Hello,

The business requirements for my application require the use of modal windows due to the process involved in calculating commissions correctly. The problem I'm having is exporting to Excel when <base target="_self"> is included in the head tag of the page. Unfortunately, I've found that I need to include it in order for the grid to be grouped or ungrouped in the same window, the dialog window to be closed, or the grid to be updated in the same window (i.e., display a row in red when updated through a button).

In order to attempt to solve the problem, I've tried the various export modes along with a JavaScript function found when researching. So far, nothing is working. I've also changed to a modeless window and, although it works, I need to comply with the business requirements.

I would appreciate any help in getting grid results successfully exported to Excel from a modal window with <base target="_self"> in the head tag. I'm including the definition of the grid and the code for exporting below.

Thanks and have a great day!

Pat

<igtbl:UltraWebGrid ID="grdPreviewDetails" runat="server" Height="450px"

Width="797px" OnInitializeLayout="grdPreviewDetails_InitializeLayout"

onungroupcolumn="grdPreviewDetails_UnGroupColumn"

oninitializerow="grdPreviewDetails_InitializeRow">

<Bands>

<igtbl:UltraGridBand BaseTableName="grdPreviewDetails" Key="key">

<igtbl:UltraGridColumn BaseColumnName="key" HeaderText="" Hidden="True" Key="key">

</Header>

</igtbl:UltraGridColumn>

<igtbl:TemplatedColumn AllowGroupBy="No" AllowUpdate="Yes" BaseColumnName="Checked"

HeaderText="" Key="Checked" SortIndicator="Disabled" Type="CheckBox">

</Header>

</CellStyle>

</Footer>

</igtbl:TemplatedColumn>

</Columns>

</igtbl:UltraGridBand>

</Bands>

<DisplayLayout Version="4.00" SelectTypeRowDefault="Extended" Name="grdPreviewDetails"

AllowSortingDefault="OnClient" AllowDeleteDefault="Yes"

AllowUpdateDefault="Yes" AllowColSizingDefault="Free" RowHeightDefault="20px"

TableLayout="Fixed" ViewType="OutlookGroupBy" RowSelectorsDefault="No"

AllowColumnMovingDefault="OnServer" HeaderClickActionDefault="SortMulti"

StationaryMargins="Header" BorderCollapseDefault="Separate"

StationaryMarginsOutlookGroupBy="True" CellClickActionDefault="RowSelect"

NoDataMessage="There are no payments to preview" IndentationDefault="0"

IndentationTypeDefault="Flat"

GroupByRowDescriptionMaskDefault="[caption] : [value] ([count]; [sum:AmountPaid])">

</GroupByBox>

<FrameStyle BackColor="Window" BorderColor="InactiveCaption" BorderWidth="1px"

BorderStyle="Solid" Font-Names="Microsoft Sans Serif" Font-Size="8.25pt"

Height="450px" Width="797px"></FrameStyle>

<ClientSideEvents AfterCellUpdateHandler="grdPreviewDetails_AfterCellUpdateHandler"

InitializeLayoutHandler="grdPreviewDetails_InitializeLayoutHandler" />

</Style>

</Pager>

</FooterStyleDefault>

</HeaderStyleDefault>

</RowStyleDefault>

</Style>

</AddNewBox>

</FilterDropDownStyle>

</FilterOptionsDefault>

</DisplayLayout>

</igtbl:UltraWebGrid>

<div id="divExport" style="z-index: 107; left: 12px; width: 479px; position: absolute;

top: 566px; height: 53px">

<cc1:UltraWebGridExcelExporter ID="UltraWebGridExcelExporter1" runat="server"

EnableViewState="false" oninitializecolumn="UltraWebGridExcelExporter1_InitializeColumn" >

</cc1:UltraWebGridExcelExporter>

</div>

protected void btnExportPreview_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

string strYear = System.DateTime.Today.Year.ToString();

string strMonth = System.DateTime.Today.Month.ToString();

string strDay = System.DateTime.Today.Day.ToString();

//Add leading zero if month is single digit

if (strMonth.Length == 1)

{

strMonth = "0" + strMonth;

}

//Add leading zero if day is single digit

if (strDay.Length == 1)

{

strDay = "0" + strDay;

}

string strFileName = "PaymentPreview_" + strYear + strMonth + strDay + ".xls";

grdPreviewDetails.Columns.FromKey("AmountPaid").HeaderText = "Payment";

grdPreviewDetails.Columns.FromKey("AmountPaid").Format = "C"; //To ensure the export retains the currency format, set the value to "C" here; it is checked/set in the InitializeColumn function.

grdPreviewDetails.Columns.FromKey("IsHeld").Hidden = true;

UltraWebGridExcelExporter1.DownloadName = strFileName;

UltraWebGridExcelExporter1.ExportMode = Infragistics.WebUI.UltraWebGrid.ExcelExport.ExportMode.InBrowser;

UltraWebGridExcelExporter1.Export(grdPreviewDetails); //,strFileName

}

180

Pat posted over 16 years ago in reply to eyal

The main page contains a button which displays the dialog window. The javascript called by the button click event is:
function getPaymentsDetail(includeDraws)
{

//It was necessary to include the resizeGrid() function here to prevent the grid from displaying at the top of the page over other controls

//The resizeGrid() function resizes the grid based on the user's screen resolution

resizeGrid()
var newWindow = new Array("");
var openString = "wfDialogContainer.aspx?draws=" + includeDraws
var featureString = "status:no;dialogWidth:825px;dialogHeight:690px;dialogHide:false;help:no;scroll:no;center:yes;resizable:no";newWindow = window.showModalDialog(openString,"",featureString);
}

The dialog container page contains (note the iframe dimensions are the same as defined in the featurestring above):

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="wfDialogContainer.aspx.cs" Inherits="FIS.CommissionManagement.ClientLayer.CommissionManagement.WebForms.wfDialogContainer" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">
<title>Commissions Management</title>
</head>

<body>

<form id="frmDialogContainer" runat="server">

<div>


<iframe id="DialogContainer" runat="server" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position: absolute; height: 690px; width: 825px;"></iframe>

</div>
</form>
</body>

</html>

The code-behind contains:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
namespace FIS.CommissionManagement.ClientLayer.CommissionManagement.WebForms
{

public partial class wfDialogContainer : System.Web.UI.Page

{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (Page.IsPostBack == false)
{
string strIncludeDraws = Request.QueryString["draws"];DialogContainer.Attributes.Add("src", "wfPaymentsDetail.aspx?draws=" + strIncludeDraws);
}

}

}

}

So far, this is the only page I have that needs this method. In the future, the code-behind may need to be adapted for other sources.

Hope this helps solve your problem!
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eyal posted over 16 years ago in reply to Pat

Hi,

i got the same problem, can you please send me your solution with more details.
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Pat posted over 16 years ago in reply to Pat

I found a solution that works as I need it to. The modal window calls a page that contains only an iframe with a little bit of code to handle any parameters needing to be passed. The source of the iframe is then set in code to display the actual page. I have three buttons on the page with one of them doing a postback which goes to the same modal window. The excel export button performs as expected with only the Open/Save dialog being displayed. Clicking the Open selection opens Excel and displays the results while clicking the Save selection prompts the user for a location.

Neither the iframe page or the actual page require the <base target="_self"> tag.

As a side note, we are using version 6.3 and, from what I can tell, the WebDialogWindow is not available.
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180

Pat posted over 16 years ago in reply to Derek Harmon

Thank you for the suggestions. I have tried the exportmode.custom method without much success. Do you have an easy-to-follow/understand sample? One thing I need to make sure of is to allow the user to save the worksheet to a place of their choice.

I'll try the hyperlink suggestion and see where that takes me.
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Derek Harmon posted over 16 years ago

pgrimes629 said:
I would appreciate any help in getting grid results successfully exported to Excel from a modal window with <base target="_self"> in the head tag.

I seem to recall some browsers faced challenges, at least in the past, when opening an Excel file from within a window created via showModal( ). If you put an ordinary hyperlink on this page to a temporary .xls (not one produced by the exporter, just save an empty workbook from Excel) that is being hosted at some path on your Web server, and you click on this hyperlink - does it download/open successfully within the modal window?

If so, then at least one approach you should be able to use is ExportMode.Custom and then arrange for the file stream so created and stored temporarily on the server to be downloaded by the modal window. If the hyperlink test doesn't work then you'll know the challenge isn't with the WebGridExcelExporter, but the modal window opening of an Excel file limitation.

The above assumes you're using showModal( ) or something similar to create this window and perhaps that isn't the case. The WebDialogWindow control supports a modal display mode that prevents interaction by the user with the browser contents in the background, have you tried exporting the grid using a WebDialogWindow?
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