rails excel mime-type - how to change default filename?

Question

I followed the http://railscasts.com/episodes/362-exporting-csv-and-excel and set up an Excel Download in my Rails application.

My controller code looks like this:

  def show
    @project = Project.find(params[:id])
    @project.tasks.order(:name)
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.json { render json: @project }
      format.xls
    end
  end

and in my view I create the link to download the excel file like this:

.dl_xls= link_to "Download xls", url_for(:format => 'xls')

Now the generated excel file is always named like the id of the Project record, e.g. 80.xls

Is there any way to change this behaviour and give it a custom name?

Thank you..

score 25 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

25

I believe your answer is here: in rails, how to return records as a csv file

Use headers to set the filename.

headers["Content-Disposition"] = "attachment; filename=\"#{filename}\""

edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

Community

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answered Jul 24 '12 at 10:13

cutalion

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thanks that did it. i just added the above quoted line into my format.xls { ... } and it worked with the specified filename. – tmaximini Jul 24 '12 at 13:47
This works for any type of rendered downloadable file. Great! – Ruby Racer Apr 18 '15 at 22:29
I'd like to add that the file name should include the extension as well (.xls in this case) – raquelhortab Nov 04 '19 at 14:20

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 30 '15 at 08:08

7

def index
  @tabulars = Tabular.all
  filename = "data_users.xls"
  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.xls { headers["Content-Disposition"] = "attachment; filename=\"#{filename}\"" }
  end
end

This link more detail change the file name excel

edited Oct 30 '15 at 08:08

Kristján

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answered May 19 '13 at 00:58

akbarbin

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Thanks, You save my time. – Jigar Bhatt Oct 30 '15 at 07:39

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 24 '12 at 10:12

I expect what you are actually seeing there is the name of the view sans .erb, not necessarily the controller action.

If you want that level of control there are three things you can do.

Use the send_data call from your controller with tab separated data as shown in the rails cast with the filename: option

e.g.

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @products = Product.order(:name)
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html
      format.csv { send_data @products.to_csv }
      format.xls { send_data @products.to_csv(col_sep: "\t"), filename: 'your_file_name.xls'}
    end
  end
end

There are problems with this approach as well as the old propriety spreadsheetML language that the railscast introduces, but if your user base is locked into MS-OFFICE, I dont think anyone will notice.

Alternatively, you can use a gem like acts_as_xlsx or axlsx_rails that consume the axlsx gem. Those tools generate validated xlsx data (also known as Office Open XML / ECMA-376 - or what MS has been using since office 2007...), and have fairly good interoperability with other modern spreadsheet software like Numbers, GoogleDocs, LibraOffice. I am sure you noticed all the comments related to this in the railscast.

I know, because I am the author or axlsx, and those limitations, and the lack of styling, charts and validation where what drove me to author axlsx in the first place.

More Info: axlsx: https://github.com/randym/axlsx

acts_as_xlsx: http://axlsx.blogspot.jp/2011/12/using-actsasxlsx-to-generate-excel-data.html

Write your own responder / renderer

axlsx_rails is also a great example on how to author your own renderer and responder so that you can use the standard rails view, but rename the file that gets downloaded.

https://github.com/straydogstudio/axlsx_rails/blob/master/lib/axlsx_rails/action_controller.rb

thanks for your answer but i did not want to go the send_data route — tmaximini, Jul 24 '12 at 13:46

rails excel mime-type - how to change default filename?

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