Export as XLS gives file with html code

  • rickpoet

    (@rickpoet)


    11 years ago

    Hi,

    Thanks for your responsive support Cimatti in getting the submission data visible per the other thread.

    Now that I can view the submission date, my main purpose there is to be able to export it in a spreadsheet file so I can easily work with the data. When I press either of the options for exporting as an .xls file I get a file which opens up with html code in the .xls file: https://cl.ly/SSP3

    I tried changing the extension of the downloaded file to .html and opened it in Dreamweaver and sure enough it’s a fully formed html table: https://cl.ly/SSP3 (screenshot in Safari.)

    Any idea why this might be happening?

    Thanks!

    Rick

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/contact-forms/

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author cimatti

    (@cimatti)

    Hi Rick,

    As you noticed, the .xls generated is not in the “normal” Excel format, but it’s an html file for Excel. It contains just a table with some special tags and attributes for Excel. This is a format supported by Excel since ’97 (if I remember right), and is supported also by later Excel versions and (partially) by OpenOffice/LibreOffice (anyway with OpenOffice you should get the content and work on it).

    This is a trick used also by other PHP scripts, as in PHP is easier to generate an html file compatible with Excel than a “true” .xls

    As a workaround, if you still can’t open it properly with your spreadsheet, you can rename the file to html and open it with a browser (or Dreamweaver), copy the content and paste it on your favorite spreadsheet

    BTW, what operative system and spreadsheet are you using? We may try to improve support for your system

    Thread Starter rickpoet

    (@rickpoet)

    Hi,

    Thanks for the response. I’m using “Numbers” on Mac OS X 10.9.1 – which is generally able to open up .xls files, but hadn’t encountered php-style spreadsheet files before so I guess it’s not able to open them. But the trick of opening it as an html file and then cutting and pasting worked…fairly easy workaround so thanks for that!

    Rick

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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