Question Problem Opening Excel From Browser Using Webspeed

kirsch59

Member
I'm running Webspeed 10.1C on a Window Server 2003.
Client PC is Windows 7 pro and I.E. 11 and EXCEL 2010

Years ago I wrote a CGI program that downloads order information into EXCEL. I have the following statements

output-http-header("Content-disposition","Attachment~; filename=orders.xls").
RUN OutputContentType IN web-utilities-hdl("application/vnd.ms-excel").

I then then use {&OUT} with HTML tags to format the data into a table. This program stopped working today. When EXCEL opens an empty gray workbook displays and that's it. When I use Firefox I have the same results.

There was a Microsoft update yesterday. Do you think that was the problem? I probably could fallback to an older Restore Point and see if it works. If the MS update caused the problem then do you think there's a programming workaround?

Thanks
Mark
 

kirsch59

Member
So I did a system restore dated 7/10/16. After the restore completed the spreadsheets open with the data in EXCEL. The MS windows update seemed to cause the problem. Any creative ideas how to solve the problem?
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
Did you check there were no ghost excel.exe processes running? If excel doesn't close down properly it can have some strange results.
 

kirsch59

Member
No ghost excel.exe. The problems occurs after rebooting the PC in which it happened. Also, it happens on other PCs.
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
What's the specific update that was installed? I'd be contacting M$ support to be honest.
 

kirsch59

Member
Microsoft does Window's Updates on the second Tuesday of each month. I believe this is the update that is causing my EXCEL problem:

Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2010 (KB3115322) 64-Bit Edition
Installation date: ‎7/‎14/‎2016 3:04 AM
Installation status: Successful
Update type: Important
A security vulnerability exists in Microsoft Excel 2010 64-Bit Edition that could allow arbitrary code to
run when a maliciously modified file is opened. This update resolves that vulnerability.

More information:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115322
Help and Support:
http://support.microsoft.com/?LN=en-us

My guess is that the MS update stops EXCEL from opening properly because my WebSpeed CGI program is setting the content type to ms-excel and passing HTML tags to EXCEL. The HTML maybe considered malicious code.
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
True. What are the various trust settings in Excel set to? Try opening everything up and try again.
 

kirsch59

Member
You are spot on. I changed the following Trust settings in EXCEL. This will be a workaround until I can make some coding changes.

upload_2016-7-15_9-16-19.png
 

ForEachInvoiceDelete

Active Member
Sorry to zombie an old topic, but i remember when i first started using com-handles with progress many years ago those ghost excel.exe's were the bane of my life.

I think i managed to fill an entire task manager with them before i noticed something was going wrong lol
 
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