Spring MVC - Generate Excel Example

The following example shows how to generate Excel using the Spring Web MVC Framework. To begin with, let us have a working Eclipse IDE in place and stick to the following steps to develop a Dynamic Form based Web Application using the Spring Web Framework.

ExcelController.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController;

public class ExcelController extends AbstractController {

   @Override
   protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
      HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
      //user data
      Map<String,String> userData = new HashMap<String,String>();
      userData.put("1", "Mahesh");
      userData.put("2", "Suresh");
      userData.put("3", "Ramesh");
      userData.put("4", "Naresh");
      return new ModelAndView("UserSummary","userData",userData);
   }
}

UserExcelView.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFRow;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractExcelView;

public class UserExcelView extends AbstractExcelView {

   @Override
   protected void buildExcelDocument(Map<String, Object> model,
      HSSFWorkbook workbook, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
      throws Exception {
      Map<String,String> userData = (Map<String,String>) model.get("userData");
      //create a wordsheet
      HSSFSheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("User Report");

      HSSFRow header = sheet.createRow(0);
      header.createCell(0).setCellValue("Roll No");
      header.createCell(1).setCellValue("Name");

      int rowNum = 1;
      for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : userData.entrySet()) {
         //create the row data
         HSSFRow row = sheet.createRow(rowNum++);
         row.createCell(0).setCellValue(entry.getKey());
         row.createCell(1).setCellValue(entry.getValue());
      }   
   }
}

TestWeb-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:context = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"   
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns:mvc = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">
   
   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />

   <bean class = "com.howcodex.ExcelController" />

   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.view.XmlViewResolver">
      <property name = "location">
         <value>/WEB-INF/views.xml</value>
      </property>
   </bean>
</beans>

views.xml

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:context = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

   <bean id = "UserSummary" class = "com.howcodex.UserExcelView"></bean>
</beans>

Here, we have created an ExcelController and an ExcelView. Apache POI library deals with Microsoft Office file formats and will convert the data to an excel document.

Once you are done with creating source and configuration files, export your application. Right click on your application, use Export → WAR File option and save the TestWeb.war file in Tomcat's webapps folder.

Now, start the Tomcat server and make sure you are able to access other webpages from the webapps folder using a standard browser. Try a URL − http://localhost:8080/TestWeb/excel and we will see the following screen.