Firefox will not download this file as a CSV

Question

I have tried everything I can think of. I have changed the mime type 100 times. Changed the headers 400 times. I've looked through stack over flow a dozen times. This works fine in Chrome. Soon as I go to download in Firefox it thinks it's a xlsx file, or a binary file. It even opens as an xlsx but it doesn't think it's a csv so the columns aren't seperated. If I save the file(instead of just hit open) it doesn't even put the extension on. I haven't even got to IE yet so this is kind of worrying me.

    mime mapping
   <mime-mapping>
        <extension>csv</extension>
        <mime-type>application/vnd.ms-excel</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>

I've tried text/csv, application/csv, application/binary, application/octet-stream.

public void doDownloadFile() {

            PrintWriter out = null;

            try {

                String fileName = selectedPkgLine.getShortname() + ".csv";

                HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getResponse();
                HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest();

                response.setHeader("Pragma", "public");
                response.setHeader("Expires", "0");
                response.setContentType(request.getServletContext().getMimeType(fileName));
                response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
                response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fileName + "");
                response.setHeader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "binary");

                out = response.getWriter();
                CSVWriter writer = new CSVWriter(out);

                List<PkgLoad> pkgLoadList = pkgLoadService.findBetweenDates(selectedPkgLine, startDate, endDate);

                List<String[]> stringList = new ArrayList<String[]>();
                stringList.clear();

                String[] header = {
                    "pkg_load_id",
                    "time_stamp",
                    "ounces",
                    "revolutions",
                    "wrap_spec_id",
                    "pkg_line_id"
                };

                stringList.add(header);

                for (PkgLoad pkgLoad : pkgLoadList) {

                    String[] string = {
                        pkgLoad.getPkgLoadId().toString(),
                        pkgLoad.getTimeStamp().toString(),
                        pkgLoad.getOunces().toString(),
                        pkgLoad.getRevolutions().toString(),
                        pkgLoad.getWrapSpecId().getWrapSpecId().toString(),
                        pkgLoad.getPkgLineId().getPkgLineId().toString()
                    };
                    stringList.add(string);
                }

                response.setHeader("Content-length", String.valueOf(stringList.size()));


                writer.writeAll(stringList);
                out.flush();

            } catch (IOException ex) {
                Logger.getLogger(ViewLines.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
            } finally {
                out.close();
            }
        }

Thanks for any help.

Safari, Opera and Chrome work fine. Haven't tried IE.

EDIT

Ok this entire time it was a spacing issue. My file name was "file name.csv" and this works in every browser except firefox. Soon as I put my file name to "filename.csv with no spaces it downloaded it find. I didn't notice that when it was downloading it was only downloading the first part of the name before the space. Good luck!

You should try it with IE and see what result you get there. Maybe that tells you more about the problem you have with Firefox. — AudioDroid, Mar 01 '11 at 14:53
Note that the `` is only been used when the resource is been served from public webcontent by a direct link/call or when you use `ServletContext#getMimeType()`. It is irrelevant in this particular purpose where you serve the response and set the `Content-Type` header yourself. — BalusC, Mar 01 '11 at 15:10
Yes I understand. I was just trying whatever I could do. This particular code works in IE8. It sees it as a csv and I can save it and open it. I don't know what is wrong with firefox. — Drew H, Mar 01 '11 at 15:15

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 25 '12 at 11:38

6

I had the same issue in PHP and found adding double quotes for the file name fixes the problem.

 response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + fileName + \"");

answered Jul 25 '12 at 11:38

Oharrington

61
1
1

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 01 '11 at 15:08

5

The content type text/csv is correct, but you should also add an charset encoding:

response.setHeader("Content-type: text/csv; charset=utf-8");

But what the hell is this:

response.setHeader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "binary");
response.setHeader("Content-length", String.valueOf(stringList.size()));

Remove that headers! The content length is in bytes. Do not try to calculate it by yourself. It is definitly wrong in this example! A Mime-Type with major type text is not binary!

edited Mar 01 '11 at 15:08

BalusC

1,082,665
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3,610
3,555

answered Mar 01 '11 at 15:06

Arne Burmeister

20,046
8
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94

Still does not work. Firefox keeps stripping the csv off the end. IE8 works in this case. If I change the content-type to .xls application/excel .xls application/vnd.ms-excel .xls application/x-excel .xls application/x-msexcel it puts an xls or xlsx on the end. – Drew H Mar 01 '11 at 15:21
Please [check this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39848019/why-php-script-does-not-generate-csv-file-in-firefox/39848402) Need help – Ayaz Ali Shah Oct 04 '16 at 10:33

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '11 at 02:09

4

Ok this entire time it was a spacing issue. My file name was "file name.csv" and this works in every browser except firefox. Soon as I put my file name to "filename.csv with no spaces it downloaded it find. I didn't notice that when it was downloading it was only downloading the first part of the name before the space.

In the future make sure the filename has a single quote around it in the header. This will allow Firefox to download it correctly(without stripping off anything past the space) if you need a space the file name.

Good luck!

answered Mar 18 '11 at 02:09

Drew H

4,699
9
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90

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Anybody coming to this issue now: see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filenames_with_spaces_are_truncated_upon_download. The real issue is that you should have Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="filename with spaces". – Nate Bundy Sep 16 '13 at 19:13
@NateBundy's comment is correct. You have escape double quotes around the filename if your header is in a double quoted string. – Jason H Jan 07 '14 at 16:25
thank you for the post, it helped to solve an issue with firefox [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/32373057/2218697) is the solution – Shaiju T Sep 03 '15 at 10:29

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 25 '15 at 07:48

1

Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", string.Format("attachment;filename=\"{0}\"", fileName)); Response.ContentType = "text/csv; charset=utf-8";

answered Sep 25 '15 at 07:48

user5375275

11
1

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 14:58

1

Add the content-type header with value text/csv

response.setHeader("Content-type: text/x-csv");

answered Mar 01 '11 at 14:58

emeraldjava

10,894
26
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170

2

`text/csv` should also suffice. – Matt Ball Mar 01 '11 at 15:00
Doesn't work. Same thing. Firefox sees it as a filename with no extension. If I add application/vnd.ms-excel as the content type it sees it as an excel(xlsx) file even though its a .csv file. – Drew H Mar 01 '11 at 15:06

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 15:04

I am not expert in Java/JSP but are you sure this is correct for text/csv?
response.setHeader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "binary");
Did you try commenting out this? In PHP I will simply echo/print the CSV preceded with headers content-type headers and disposition type.

Firefox will not download this file as a CSV

EDIT

6 Answers6

Linked

Firefox will not download this file as a CSV

****EDIT****

6 Answers6

Linked

EDIT