org.apache.poi.POIXMLException Strict OOXML isn't currently supported, please see bug #57699

Question

I'd like to parse an Excel file with java, so I'm using apache poi libraries, here you are the maven dependencies:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
    <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
    <version>3.14</version>
</dependency>

This will include a series of dependencies:

poi-ooxml-3.14.jar
poi-3.14.jar
commons-codec-1.10.jar
poi-ooxml-schemas-3.14.jar
xmlbeans-2.6.0.jar
stax-api-1.0.1.jar
curvesapi-1.03.jar

When I try to read an Office 365 Excel file (.xslx) with this code:

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Row;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;
public class ExcelConverter {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
        String excelFilePath = "C:/temp/Book1.xlsx";
        File myFile = new File(excelFilePath);
        System.out.println("File exists: " + myFile.exists());
        FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(myFile);

        Workbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(inputStream);
   }
}

I got the following console message:

File exists: true
Exception in thread "main" org.apache.poi.POIXMLException: Strict OOXML isn't currently supported, please see bug #57699
    at org.apache.poi.POIXMLDocumentPart.getPartFromOPCPackage(POIXMLDocumentPart.java:679)
    at org.apache.poi.POIXMLDocumentPart.<init>(POIXMLDocumentPart.java:122)
    at org.apache.poi.POIXMLDocumentPart.<init>(POIXMLDocumentPart.java:115)
    at org.apache.poi.POIXMLDocument.<init>(POIXMLDocument.java:61)
    at org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook.<init>(XSSFWorkbook.java:273)
    at org.myCompany.excel.ExcelConverter.main(ExcelConverter.java:25)

Do you know what can I do to solve the issue? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

There doesn't currently appear to be any simple solution other than "Don't save your spreadsheet in "strict OOXML" format."

For example, in Excel use

Save As --> "Excel Workbook (.xlsx)" 

instead of

Save As --> "Strict Open XML Spreadsheet (.xlsx)" 

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Do you know why Excel Worksheet and this format have the same file extension?

That would be something that only Microsoft can answer. But I guess that the engineers (or their management) did not anticipate that it would be necessary for application software to make the distinction.

I am accepting Files as input and then processing them based on the extension. How can I know without try-catch?

There is nothing that will let you process the document with current generation POI.

I guess you could code something to read the file and look for the signature for "strict OOXML" format¹ before passing the file to POI, but there's not much point. You would be writing a stack of extra code just so that you can replace the try-catch with other logic.

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^{1 - See https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000395.shtml#sign}