When using the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) content type in ASP to stream either a Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Excel 2000 document, the client may receive either a blank document, static HTML, or the ASP source code rather than the intended document.
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When navigating to a page that displays MIME content, Internet Explorer passes the URL of the page to the Office application to retrieve the data. Because Word 2000 and Excel 2000 can directly read content from an HTTP server, the application downloads and displays the physical ASP file that is specified in the URL instead of displaying the results of the ASP page as you would expect. This can result in either a blank document, static HTML, or the ASP source being displayed.
The blank document and static HTML situations are related. The server retrieves the file and tries to parse the HTML data, which removes all the ASP code and leaves the static HTML. If your ASP code does not contain any static HTML, you receive a blank page. Otherwise, you just see the static HTML, and possibly part of the ASP code.
The problem only occurs if your client system has write permissions to the ASP file on the Web server. If the client does not have write permissions, Office 2000 defaults to the Office 97 behavior and to an HTTP GET on the file.
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Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
The problem has been corrected in SR1 for Office 2000. You can download the
service pack from the following Web address:
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Steps to Reproduce Behavior
- Start Microsoft Notepad.
- Paste the following code into Notepad:
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Buffer = TRUE
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
%>
<HTML>
<BODY>
<% Response.Write("This does not show up in Excel") %>
</BODY>
</HTML>
- Save the file to a virtual directory on your Web server. Name the file MIMETest.asp.
- Close Notepad and start Internet Explorer.
- In the Address bar, type http://<server>/<vdir>/MIMETest.ASP, where <server> is your Web server name and <vdir> is the virtual directory in which you placed the HTML file. If the client has write permissions to the file, you see either a blank page or the ASP script source code.
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For additional information on similar issues with Office 2000 and ASP, click the article numbers below
to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
247318 BUG: Word 2000 and Excel 2000 Do Not Redirect Correctly When Using Response.Redirect
225234 OFF2000: Link to Office Document Produces Password Prompt
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