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?
Thanks for the update,
I need to check with user for zipping but i am replacing an existing process with Snaplogic tool so user may not agree and would like to see the file in mail same as as-is process where he can easily open it without downloading etc.
xlsx extension is not an issue but its making the size twice+ which can cause issues in mail exch server limits. I am not aware if these is anything which can reduce xlsx attachment size.
Any plan on supporting xlsb in near time?
