Internal table to be downloaded into excel is empty

Question

Hi everybody,
I created a page where I'm displaying in a table all the records. OnInitialization, I set my RFC needed to get the data from the Prod.Server and so far is displaying fine the data when I test it.
Now, I want to download that table into excel so I created a buttom in the Layout and in the same page OnInputProcessing I'm checking the event (IF event_id = CL_HTMLB_MANAGER=>EVENT_ID) to check if the new button was trigered. Next, I copied the solution given by Thomas in the weblogs "BSP Download to Excel in Unicode Format" but when I check my table already displayed and needed by the function 'SCMS_STRING_TO_XSTRING', now is empty.
I set the Automatic Page Attribute for my table ON but still is empty.
Do I have to set something else to retain or get my table OnInputProcessing?
Thanks in advance for your quick answer.
Juan

Answer 1

Thanks everybody for your quick answers.
You are all rights, when I set my page Stateful it solve my problem and I'm getting my table with Data.
Now, I'm having a second problem.
As I told you before, I only have one page where in OnInitialization I'm displaying a table, that's fine. I include a button to download the table into excel and I copied the Thomas code into the same page OnInputProcessing Event. I test it in debug mode and it's going fine thrue all the statements: executing the Funtion 'SCMS_STRING_TO_XSTRING' and executing the following statements response->set_header_field and so on..
The problem is when getting the last statement:
response->set_data( data = l_xstring
length = l_len ).
navigation->response_complete( ).
My current page becomes blank with no dialog to download the file.
Here is my code from OnInputProcessing event, sorry for the long message.
CLASS CL_HTMLB_MANAGER DEFINITION LOAD.
DATA: WA LIKE LINE OF ZIMSLOC.
DATA: UNRESTQ(17) TYPE C,
      KLABS(17) TYPE C.
data: name(60) type C,
      l_string type STRING,
      l_xstring type XSTRING,
      l_len type I,
      APP_TYPE(60) type C.
DATA: response TYPE REF TO if_http_response.
create object response type cl_http_response exporting add_c_msg = 1.
constants: crlf type string value cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf,
           tab type string value cl_abap_char_utilities=>horizontal_tab.
Optional: test that this is an event from HTMLB library.
IF event_id = CL_HTMLB_MANAGER=>EVENT_ID.
See if download is triggered from button
  DATA: event TYPE REF TO CL_HTMLB_EVENT.
  event = CL_HTMLB_MANAGER=>get_event( runtime->server->request ).
  IF event->name = 'button' AND event->event_type = 'click'.
    DATA: button_event TYPE REF TO CL_HTMLB_EVENT_BUTTON.
    button_event ?= event.
  ENDIF.
  CASE event->id.
    WHEN 'download'.
      LOOP AT zimsloc INTO WA.
        UNRESTQ = WA-UNRESTRICTEDQ.
        KLABS = WA-KLABS.
        CONCATENATE l_string
        WA-WERKS tab
        WA-MATNR tab
        WA-CHARG tab
        WA-LICHA tab
        WA-MAKTX tab
        KLABS tab
        UNRESTQ tab
        WA-SOBKZ tab
        WA-SONUM tab
        WA-MEINS tab
        crlf
        INTO l_string SEPARATED BY SPACE.
      ENDLOOP.
      APP_TYPE = 'APPLICATION/MSEXCEL; charset=utf-16le'.
      call function 'SCMS_STRING_TO_XSTRING'
        EXPORTING
          text     = l_string
          MIMETYPE = APP_TYPE
        IMPORTING
          BUFFER   = l_xstring.
Add the Byte Order Mark - UTF-16 Little Endian
      concatenate  cl_abap_char_utilities=>byte_order_mark_little
                   l_xstring
                   into l_xstring in byte mode.
      response->set_header_field( name = 'content-type'
      value = 'APPLICATION/MSEXCEL; charset=utf-16le' ).
some Browsers have caching problems when loading Excel format
      response->delete_header_field( name =
      if_http_header_fields=>cache_control ).
      response->delete_header_field( name =
      if_http_header_fields=>expires ).
      response->delete_header_field( name =
      if_http_header_fields=>pragma ).
start Excel viewer either in the Browser or as a separate window
      response->set_header_field( name = 'content-disposition' value =
'attachment; filename=webforms.xls' ).
finally display Excel format in Browser
      l_len = xstrlen( l_xstring ).
      response->set_data( data = l_xstring
      length = l_len ).
      navigation->response_complete( ).
    WHEN others.
  ENDCASE.
ENDIF.
Thanks againg for your help.
Juan