Generate CSV file in JSF 2.0

Question

i am using apache poi and JSF 2.0 in my application to generate report in excel format.

Code Snipped to generate Excel.

final FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        final ExternalContext externalContext = facesContext
                .getExternalContext();
        externalContext.setResponseContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
            externalContext.setResponseHeader("Content-Disposition",
            "attachment; filename=\"Excel Sample");
        workbook.write(externalContext.getResponseOutputStream());
        facesContext.responseComplete();

As You can see i am adding "application/vnd.ms-excel"- MIME type for the server. I am just playing around and wondering if we can change the MIME type to CSV. I am no more generating Excel file for report.

There is another function where i am fetching the data from the database and writing it to cells using HSSF object. and I call this method (code snippet) after writing data to each cell.

What I am supposed to write instead

externalContext.setResponseContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");

So that it generates file with csv extension.

Answer 1

response.setContentType("text/comma-separated-values; charset=utf8");

Answer 2

The normal mimetype for a CSV file is text/csv

When generating your file, be sure to quote values correctly. It may be worth using an existing library to ensure that's done, especially if you have complicated values