I'm trying to invoke EXCEL or POWERPOINT file into the browser IE 6.0. The

Question

I'm running TOMCAT locally on my PC (running Windows NT).
I'm trying to invoke EXCEL or POWERPOINT file into the browser IE 6.0.
The output is coming out all scrambled (almost like ASCII code or something),
where it seems like the applications are not firing up.
However, an MSWord file shows up fine. So I go to the WEB.XML file in the TOMCAT\CONF
folder and notice that a MIME type has been set up for MSWord and not the other two.
I set one up for EXCEL and POWERPOINT but the XLS or PPT files still don't work.
So, just for kicks, I comment out the MSWord MIME definition but the MSWord file still worked!!!
I can't figure out what's going on here.
I'm stopping and starting the TOMCAT service each time I make changes to the WEB.XML file,
but it seems like none of the changes are taking affect.
I install all the viewers for MS-Word, ppt, and excell.
But in Netscape it works fine.

Answer 1

To support various file formats in IE browser while using window.open like .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, xlsx etc.,
The following code can also be used to force any format to get launch outside IE
For these first configure a filter in web.xml and then include the filter class in given path
<filter>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>com.srk.MimeFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.xls</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.xlsx</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.ppt</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.doc</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.docx</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MimeFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>*.pptx</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
and then include the filter class in the declared path
import java.io.*;
import java.util.logging.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.Filter;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
public class MimeFilter implements Filter {
public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,
FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
HttpServletResponse httpResp = (HttpServletResponse) response;
HttpServletRequest httpReq = (HttpServletRequest) request;
String fileUrl = httpReq.getRequestURI();
if(fileUrl.lastIndexOf(".xls")!=-1)
fileUrl = fileUrl.substring(fileUrl.lastIndexOf("/")+1);
httpResp.setContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
httpResp.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename="+fileUrl);
if(fileUrl.lastIndexOf(".ppt")!=-1)
fileUrl = fileUrl.substring(fileUrl.lastIndexOf("/")+1);
httpResp.setContentType("application/powerpoint");
httpResp.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename="+fileUrl);
if(fileUrl.lastIndexOf(".doc")!=-1)
fileUrl = fileUrl.substring(fileUrl.lastIndexOf("/")+1);
httpResp.setContentType("application/msword");
httpResp.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename="+fileUrl);
chain.doFilter(request, response);
public boolean isLoggable(LogRecord record) {
return false;
public void destroy() {
public void init(FilterConfig arg0) throws ServletException {
Please let me know your feedback.