Excel WFS Output Format

The GeoServer Excel plugin adds the ability to output WFS responses in either Excel 97-2003 (.xls) or Excel 2007 (.xlsx) formats.

Installation

  1. Login, and navigate to About & Status > About GeoServer and check Build Information to determine the exact version of GeoServer you are running.

  2. Visit the website download page, change the Archive tab, and locate your release.

    From the list of Output formats extensions download Excel.

    Verify that the version number in the filename corresponds to the version of GeoServer you are running (for example 2.28.0 above).

  3. Unzip the archive into the WEB-INF/lib directory of the GeoServer installation.

  4. Restart GeoServer.

Usage

When making a WFS request, set the outputFormat to excel (for Excel 97-2003) or excel2007 (for Excel 2007).

Examples

Excel 97-2003 GET:

http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wfs?request=GetFeature&version=1.1.0&typeName=topp:states&outputFormat=excel

Excel 2007 GET:

http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wfs?request=GetFeature&version=1.1.0&typeName=topp:states&outputFormat=excel2007

Excel 97-2003 POST:

<wfs:GetFeature service="WFS" version="1.1.0"
  outputFormat="excel"
  xmlns:topp="http://www.openplans.org/topp"
  xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs"
  xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wfs
                      http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.1.0/wfs.xsd">
  <wfs:Query typeName="topp:states" />
</wfs:GetFeature>

Limitations

Excel 97-2003 files are stored in a binary format and are thus space-efficient, but have inherent size limitations (65,526 rows per sheet; 256 columns per sheet).

Excel 2007 files are XML-based, and have much higher limits (1,048,576 rows per sheet; 16,384 columns per sheet). However, because they are text files Excel 2007 files are usually larger than Excel 97-2003 files.

If the number of rows in a sheet or characters in a cell exceeds the limits of the chosen Excel file format, warning text is inserted to indicate the truncation.

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