[Javascript] Client-side Word document creation via XML/XSLT

[Dave Shaw]

That's interesting, Terry. Thank you.

On Wed, 2010-03-24 at 15:22 -0400, Terry Riegel wrote:

> Dave,
> 
> This isn't Javascript (fully), but it may provide what you are looking for to save out a file to the users hard drive.
> 
> http://downloadify.info
> 
> Terry
> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 21, 2010, at 8:05 PM, Dave Shaw wrote:
> 
> > This is going to be a bit long. Please bear with me.
> > 
> > I have a package called the Data Integration Toolkit (DIT) by CorasWorks
> > in one of my SharePoint environments. I can use this to fetch data in
> > XML format from nearly anywhere, including native SharePoint content,
> > then apply XSLT transforms against it for display on SharePoint web part
> > pages. I've gotten some very nice custom displays from this. I've
> > managed to also use the DIT to apply an XSLT template with WordML markup
> > to get SharePoint list content in a nicely-formatted Word document in
> > Word 2003 XML format.
> > 
> > I support another SharePoint environment that does not have the DIT
> > available. I'd like to accomplish some of these same things in that
> > environment. I figure I should be able to do all this client side. I've
> > managed to get the SharePoint list content in XML format (owssvr.dll is
> > your friend), and I've written a little Ajax code to fetch the data and
> > template, do the transform, and stuff the results into the innerHTML
> > property of a <div> for the onscreen displays. Works great; gives the
> > same results as my DIT tools.
> > 
> > As to creating a Word document... Using the same data and WordML
> > transform as I have on the DIT-enabled server, I've managed to do a
> > transform and I have what I believe to be the resulting XML/WordML in a
> > variable. It's about the right length, anyway (700K bytes). The problem
> > is that I can't for the life of me figure out how to get it from
> > Javascript into Word.
> > 
> > If I put this exact data in a file (document produced by doing the
> > transform offline) sitting on the server, and I open that in IE, IE
> > offers me an open-or-save dialog and I'm good; Word opens a
> > properly-formed and perfectly-formatted document. The URL is of the form
> > http://server.address/library/test.xml. Simple stuff.
> > 
> > Ideally, I'd like to simulate this on the client - provide appropriate
> > headers and the contents of the javascript variable to IE to open as if
> > it were streaming from a web server. I've tried playing with the window
> > object but I'm getting nowhere; IE just tries to write the output as raw
> > text to the browser window. Not useful. I've played with ActiveXObjects
> > but to no avail; I keep getting prompts to run the ActiveX control, and
> > then Word won't open. Even if it did, I find nothing in the Word object
> > model that leads me to believe that I can provide my Javascript/WordML
> > as if it were coming in through File->Open. Also, I'm not a fan of this
> > approach for portability reasons, but if I could make it work, I'd be a
> > good couple of steps ahead of where I am.
> > 
> > Google is leading me in circles. I keep finding the same
> > not-so-very-helpful web pages.
> > 
> > In a nutshell, I'd like to present HTTP headers and the transform
> > results (XML/WordML) created in the client browser to the same client
> > browser in such a way as it acts as though I'd opened it from a web
> > server.
> > 
> > Can anyone give me a nudge in a useful direction?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Dave Shaw
> > 
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>