Excel Downloads

[hunt n peck]

I want to provide the user with the ability to perform a search, fine-tune
the search results, and then download the results in Excel format.

The desired effect:

1- user enters search criteria into a web form and hits "Search"
2- a list of results appears below the search criteria (i.e. user can
make changes to search criteria and re-hit "Search")
3- the user is happy with his search results
4- user hits "Download" button
5- an Excel spreadsheet containing that same data is made available for
download

I need to perform all of this functionality from one single ASPX page. I
dont want have to duplicate the all the functionality for multiple pages.
Any ideas? Will multipart HTTP content help?

I have been sort of ineffective at explaining my question so please forgive
my similar postings.

 

[Steve C. Orr, MCSD]

One of the simplest ways is to simply output HTML and save it with an XLS
extension. (Excel handles this situation very nicely.)

Here's information on the latest techniques involving Visual Studio Tools
for Office:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/developer/default.asp

If you can't use the latest bleeding edge Office interactivity, you can use
COM interop to communicate with Excel and do what you need to do.
Here's an example with ASP.OLD but it should still give you a rough idea:
http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/1493371
* Not very scalable

Or you might want to use a 3rd party tool to help out. Here are a couple:

SoftArtisans ExcelWriter:
http://excelwriter.softartisans.com/

Aspose.Excel
http://www.aspose.com