oldie

Internet Explorer

Despite the efforts to deprecate the pertinent operating systems, IE is still very popular, required for various government and corporate websites throughout the world. The modern upload and download strategies are not available in older versions of IE, but there are alternative approaches.

Upload Strategies

IE10 and IE11 FileReader

IE10 and IE11 support the standard HTML5 FileReader API:

function handle_fr(e) {
	var files = e.target.files, f = files[0];
	var reader = new FileReader();
	var rABS = !!reader.readAsBinaryString;
	reader.onload = function(e) {
		var data = e.target.result;
		if(!rABS) data = new Uint8Array(data);
		var wb = XLSX.read(data, {type: rABS ? 'binary' : 'array'});
		process_wb(wb);
	};
	if(rABS) reader.readAsBinaryString(f); else reader.readAsArrayBuffer(f);
}
input_dom_element.addEventListener('change', handle_fr, false);

ActiveX-based Upload

Through the Scripting.FileSystemObject object model, a script in the VBScript scripting language can read from an arbitrary path on the filesystem. The shim includes a special IE_LoadFile function to read binary strings from file. This should be called from a file input onchange event:

var input_dom_element = document.getElementById("file");
function handle_ie() {
	/* get data from selected file */
	var path = input_dom_element.value;
	var bstr = IE_LoadFile(path);
	/* read workbook */
	var wb = XLSX.read(bstr, {type:'binary'});
	/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
}
input_dom_element.attachEvent('onchange', handle_ie);

Download Strategies

IE10 and IE11 File API

As part of the File API implementation, IE10 and IE11 provide the msSaveBlob and msSaveOrOpenBlob functions to save blobs to the client computer. This approach is embedded in XLSX.writeFile and no additional shims are necessary.

Flash-based Download

It is possible to write to the file system using a SWF. Downloadify library implements one solution. Since a genuine click is required, there is no way to force a download. The demo generates a button for each desired output format.

ActiveX-based Download

Through the Scripting.FileSystemObject object model, a script in the VBScript scripting language can write to an arbitrary path on the filesystem. The shim includes a special IE_SaveFile function to write binary strings to file. It attempts to write to the Downloads folder or Documents folder or Desktop.

This approach can be triggered, but it requires the user to enable ActiveX. It is embedded as a strategy in writeFile and used only if the shim script is included in the page and the relevant features are enabled on the target system.

Demo

Download

The included demo starts from an array of arrays, generating an editable HTML table with aoa_to_sheet and adding it to the page:

var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(aoa);
var html_string = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html(ws, { id: "table", editable: true });
document.getElementById("container").innerHTML = html_string;

The included download buttons use table_to_book to construct a new workbook based on the table and writeFile to force a download:

var elt = document.getElementById('table');
var wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(elt, { sheet: "Sheet JS" });
XLSX.writeFile(wb, filename);

The shim is included in the HTML page, unlocking the ActiveX pathway if enabled in browser settings.

The corresponding SWF buttons are displayed in environments where Flash is available and Downloadify is supported. The easiest solution involves writing to a Base64 string and passing to the library:

Downloadify.create(element_id, {
	/* the demo includes the other options required by Downloadify */
	filename: "test.xlsx",
	data: function() { return XLSX.write(wb, {bookType:"xlsx", type:'base64'}); },
	dataType: 'base64'
});

Upload

The demo also includes an HTML file input element for updating the data table:

var ws = wb.Sheets[wb.SheetNames[0]];
var html_string = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html(ws, { id: "table", editable: true });
document.getElementById("container").innerHTML = html_string;

The specific strategy is determined based on the presence of IE_LoadFile:

var handler = typeof IE_LoadFile !== 'undefined' ? handle_ie : handle_fr;
if(input_dom_element.attachEvent) input_dom_element.attachEvent('onchange', handler);
else input_dom_element.addEventListener('change', handler, false);