Can I process Excel BIFF5 files, or simply abandon Apache POI?
To the experienced:
I am totally new to processing Microsoft Excel files using Java, and embarked on Apache POI. Now it seems I could be completely out of luck because of the Excel files I am to process.
Now looking back, I realize that what I did with the Excel file I first received (a .xls file) was opening it in Excel 2007 and clicked the Save button. And it was all OK learning POI by processing that file. Now after all the work I have done with that file, I trashed it and got a copy of the original Excel file - as is, without first loading it in Excel 2007 and saving it - and run my java program on it. And I got the following error message talking about BIFF5 and BIFF8:
C:\Oracle\Middleware\jdk160_18\bin\javaw.exe -client -classpath
C:\apps11113\JavaExercise\.adf;C:\apps11113\JavaExercise\Basic\classes;C:\java_lib\poi-3.7\poi-3.7-20101029.jar
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=C:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver_10.3\server\lib\DemoTrust.jks learnjava.ExcelTest2
Exception in thread "main" org.apache.poi.hssf.OldExcelFormatException: The supplied spreadsheet seems to be Excel 5.0/7.0 (BIFF5) format.
POI only supports BIFF8 format (from Excel versions 97/2000/XP/2003)
My program, when put into production, will run on schedule and unattended, and will have to process the file as is. Am I out of luck and have to look for some other APIs that support BIFF5? Are there such APIs?
Many thanks for helping!
Newman