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Opening word files from ASP

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amutinu

amutinu

Programmer
Oct 19, 2001
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Hello All,
I have a question regarding opening external files from ASP. I have a database where the actual binary object (word document) is stored. I want to be able to retrieve that document and then open it from ASP Page.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
 
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While you would normally set a link to a word document - in this case you cannot. The key is in setting the correct header:

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<SCRIPT id=DebugDirectives runat=server language=javascript>
// Set these to true to enable debugging or tracing
@set @debug=false
@set @trace=false
</SCRIPT>
<%Option Explicit%>
<%
'double-check that a valid login has occured...
If Session(&quot;LoggedIn&quot;) <> True then
Response.Redirect &quot;../default.asp&quot;
end if
%>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=vbscript RUNAT=Server>

' -- Tell the browser the data is a
' -- Comma Separated Values List (CSV)
Response.ContentType=&quot;application/doc&quot;
' -- Tell the browser to associate a file name
' -- with the data
Response.AddHeader &quot;Content-Disposition&quot;, &quot;filename=worddoc.doc;&quot;


I am not sure what the value for the ContentType should be for word. For a csv (or excel file) the value is &quot;application/csv&quot;.

After this header, just read in the word binary from the database and pump it out to the page. No HTML tags are needed - like <HTML> or <HEAD> or <BODY> - just the binary.

Tell me if this works - I'll be doing the same for PDF files soon (using XSLT, not ASP)! (Content Management)
 
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Well thanks for your response. I used the following code to retrieve the binary data from the database but then when i try to display it, it gives me the following errror:

<font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>
<p>Response object</font> <font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>error 'ASP 0106 : 80020005'</font>
<p>
<font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>Type Mismatch</font>
<p>
<font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>/Authenticated/Profile/test.asp</font><font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>, line 34</font>
<p>
<font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=2>An unhandled data type was encountered.
</font>

Not sure what this means.

I am able to retrieve the binary data from the database but cannot display it. I have an excel file but would be the same for word document.
And ideas??


My Code is as follows:

Dim rs
Dim ConstConnectString
Dim strSQL
Dim intAttachmentID

intAttachmentID = Request.QueryString(&quot;AttachmentID&quot;)

ConstConnectString = &quot;Provider=SQLOLEDB;User ID=EK_Admin;Initial Catalog=EK;Data Source=(local);Connect Timeout=60&quot;

Set rs = Server.CreateObject(&quot;ADODB.Recordset&quot;)

strSQL = &quot;SELECT [Attachment] FROM Attachment&quot; & _
&quot; WHERE AttachmentID = &quot; & intAttachmentID & &quot;&quot;

rs.Open strSQL, ConstConnectString, 2, 4

If Not rs.EOF then
Response.ContentType = &quot;application/x-msexcel&quot;
Response.BinaryWrite rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;)
End If

rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
 
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So what code is on line 34 of test.app?

The code seems OK, See the microsoft support article Q173308 (which is in the VI help library) - this adds a number of lines to remove other header entries...
' Clear out the existing HTTP header information
Response.Expires = 0
Response.Buffer = TRUE
Response.Clear

I do not know if you need use 'getChunck' methods to extract the data from the BLOB database column. (Content Management)
 
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The code on line 34 is:
Response.BinaryWrite rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;)

Somehow i still get the &quot;Type Mismatch&quot; error after inserting the following code.

Response.Expires = 0
Response.Buffer = TRUE
Response.Clear

I also looked at the msdn for Q173308 but that also didn't help. Somehow response.binarywrite is not matching my content type.

Any thoughts?

thanks,
 
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The rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;) could return two things - the column value OR the column itself (as an object pointer).

I am guessing, but you may want to be a bit more explicit:

rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;).value

or

rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;).getChunk(1000) [or something like that]

I really do not know more than this - perhaps someone else has a working model? (Content Management)
 
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I got this to work. somehow it was the mime type that wasn't setting it right

response.contenttype = &quot;application/vnd-ms-excel&quot; did the trick.
 
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What did your code end up looking like?
I'm trying to do the exact same thing, but with a Word document. All I seem to get to display is either 1) binary data (boxes and such) or 2) a bunch of document information stored by Word.
What type of database are you using? I'm currently using Access using an &quot;OLE object&quot; data type with a link to a Word document, but I'll need to convert this to a SQL Server database in a few months...it converts as an &quot;Image&quot; datatype.
 
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Hello LindaH,

The code is attached below. All i had to change was the MIME type on my ASP Page. I am using Sql Server as my back end database. In your case (for word documents) you will have to change the MIME type to &quot;application/vnd-msword&quot; i think. But you may want to research on MSDN for the exact MIME type.

Hope this helps!!

Dim rs
Dim ConstConnectString
Dim strSQL
Dim intAttachmentID

intAttachmentID = Request.QueryString(&quot;AttachmentID&quot;)

ConstConnectString = &quot;Provider=SQLOLEDB;User ID=EK_Admin;Initial Catalog=EK;Data Source=(local);Connect Timeout=60&quot;

Set rs = Server.CreateObject(&quot;ADODB.Recordset&quot;)

strSQL = &quot;SELECT [Attachment] FROM Attachment&quot; & _
&quot; WHERE AttachmentID = &quot; & intAttachmentID & &quot;&quot;

rs.Open strSQL, ConstConnectString, 2, 4

If Not rs.EOF then
Response.ContentType = &quot;application/vnd-ms-excel&quot;
Response.BinaryWrite rs(&quot;Attachment&quot;)
End If

rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
 
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