Initially i was looking for writing .xlsb file with the filters and some colouring/formating grid options on file headers as in attachment, But found that In sldb SL manager tab it shows .xlsb file but on downloading from sldb, the file is converting to xlsx.
TestFileWithFilters.xlsx (19.1 KB)
To be clear, you wish to write an .XLSB file and then be able to read/parse it later within a SnapLogic pipeline? The reason I ask is that when reading about the Binary format for Excel, one of the listed disadvantages I found was
Disadvantages Of Binary Files
Binary files cannot not be accessed by programs that understand the XSLX, XLSM file format only.
Thank you for the sample file. I’ll attempt to reproduce and report back to you on my findings.
Yes i see some cons, I was looking for xlsb to send file as an email attachment as .xlsb will reduce size and we can easily open xlsb file with excel sheet. If i use xlsx the file size is more than twice and exchange servers will reject it due to size limits.
To reproduce please upload any xlsb file in file reader followed by excel parser it throws error, Excel formatter snap output is xlsx binary data.
As per this blog xlsb is not supported. Load .xlxb workbook with multiple sheets to oracle table. Load only one or specific sheet data only - #13 by Siva_Venna
Regards,
Rakesh
Update on some research I’ve done. The library we use for Excel file reading/writing is Apache POI. It states:
POI does not yet support opening .xlsb files with XSSFWorkbook, but you can read files with XSSFBReader in org.apache.poi.xssf.eventusermodel.
That would translate to only being able to read .xlsb files, not being able to write them. Our current Excel Formatter + File Writer wouldn’t be able to save to the Excel Binary format.
If i use xlsx the file size is more than twice and exchange servers will reject it due to size limits.
If this is the primary reason to consider Binary format, I’d like to read up a bit more about whether those limits can be relaxed (depending on the Exchange Server version) or if there are other potential patterns to you (like the Claim Check pattern, where a link [for example, to a OneDrive or Box location] could be provided rather than an attachment.
What if the .xlsx file was zipped first via the Zip File Writer - would that reduce the file size enough and would the receiver be able to unzip?
