How to disable protected mode for Excel file generated using Apache POI?

Question

I'd created excel report(.xls) using Apache POI. Whenever I open it, it's showing a message "PROTECTED VIEW: Office has detected a problem with this file. Editing it may harm your computer". How to disable the protected view and Can I handle this within the code itself?

I'm getting the error message only when I apply the style to the cell.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCell;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCellStyle;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFDataFormat;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFFont;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFRow;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook;
import org.apache.poi.hssf.util.HSSFColor;

public class Test {

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
    HSSFSheet sheet = null;

    HSSFDataFormat dtFormat = wb.createDataFormat();
    HSSFRow row_data = null;
    HSSFCell cell_data = null;

    HSSFCellStyle style = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleSubHeader = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleLeft = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleCentre = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBRData = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleRight = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleRPrec = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBold = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBRight = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBRPrec = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBLeftHead = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBLeft = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleBCentre = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleRRight = null;
    HSSFCellStyle styleSubTitle = null;
    HSSFFont headBold = null;
    HSSFFont titleBold = null;
    HSSFDataFormat dtFmt = null;

    HSSFCellStyle styleCenter = wb.createCellStyle();
    HSSFFont fontCenter = wb.createFont();
    HSSFFont font = wb.createFont();
    HSSFFont fontBold = wb.createFont();
    HSSFFont fontsubTitle = wb.createFont();

    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("sample.xls"));

    try {

        styleSubTitle = wb.createCellStyle();
        sheet = wb.createSheet("Pricing Report");
        row_data = sheet.createRow(sheet.getLastRowNum());

        style = wb.createCellStyle();
        style.setFillForegroundColor(HSSFColor.LIGHT_YELLOW.index);
        style.setFillPattern(HSSFCellStyle.SOLID_FOREGROUND);
        style.setBorderBottom(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setBorderLeft(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setBorderRight(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setBorderTop(HSSFColor.TAN.index);

        cell_data = row_data.createCell((short) 0);
        cell_data.setCellValue("Header 1");
        cell_data.setCellStyle(styleSubTitle);
        cell_data.setCellStyle(style);

        wb.write(out);

        out.close();

        System.out.println("Excel Generated");
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
 }

}

Answer 1

So you are just another user of ancient versions of apache poi . I would suggest you using the last stable version 3.17 instead of that 6 years old 3.9 .

So for all who will find this later: This code is using apache poi version 3.10 or lower and will not more work in current versions.

And what do you expect the style.setBorderBottom(HSSFColor.TAN.index); will do? The setBorderBottom does setting the thickness of the border. This should be style.setBorderBottom(HSSFCellStyle.BORDER_THICK); for example in your version. The setting the border color will be style.setBottomBorderColor(HSSFColor.TAN.index); .

This is the problem. The int HSSFColor.TAN.index is 0x2f and this is simply not allowed to be a border thickness. That's why Excel denies using the file as a safe Excel file.

So:

...
        style = wb.createCellStyle();
        style.setFillForegroundColor(HSSFColor.LIGHT_YELLOW.index);
        style.setFillPattern(HSSFCellStyle.SOLID_FOREGROUND);
        style.setBottomBorderColor(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setLeftBorderColor(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setRightBorderColor(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setTopBorderColor(HSSFColor.TAN.index);
        style.setBorderBottom(HSSFCellStyle.BORDER_THICK);
        style.setBorderLeft(HSSFCellStyle.BORDER_THICK);
        style.setBorderRight(HSSFCellStyle.BORDER_THICK);
        style.setBorderTop(HSSFCellStyle.BORDER_THICK);
...