Item8494: The topics2excel and excel2topics scripts don't work with mod_perl and fastcgi

The topics2excel and excel2topics scripts don't seem to work with mod_perl. They seem to forget what web they were invoked from. Adding them to the mod_perl exclusion regex in the Apache config fixes the problem but perhaps the plugin topic could mention this incompatibility.

-- BryanThale - 11 Feb 2010

http://irclogs.foswiki.org/bin/irclogger_log/foswiki?date=2011-01-26,Wed&sel=257#l253

The following works for me under fcgi:

$Foswiki::cfg{SwitchBoard}{excel2topics} = {
          'function' => 'excel2topics',
          'context' => {
                         'view' => 1,
                       },
          'package' => 'Foswiki::Plugins::ExcelImportExportPlugin::Import'
        };
$Foswiki::cfg{SwitchBoard}{topics2excel} = {
          'function' => 'topics2excel',
          'context' => {
                         'view' => 1,
                       },
          'package' => 'Foswiki::Plugins::ExcelImportExportPlugin::Export'
        };

YMMV!

-- MartinCleaver - 26 Jan 2011

I'm running Foswiki-1.1.3, Sat, 16 Apr 2011, build 11475, Plugin API version 2.1 and have the same issue. I wasn't sure where to put the SwitchBoard code above so my workaround was to add

    <FilesMatch "^(excel2topics)$">
        SetHandler cgi-script
    </FilesMatch>

inside the

<Directory "/var/www/Foswiki/bin">

in my apache foswiki.conf file. That got me to task Item10072. I also noticed that the excel2topics code in the bin directory is quite different from the current view code it says it is based on. I plan on using this plugin quite a lot as we migrate an excel parts database to the wiki.

-- BillyKoos - 29 Dec 2011

The switchboard configuration didn't make a difference for me under mod_perl; the FilesMatch addition to the apache config was effective, though. But it needs to include all scripts:

   <Directory /path/to/foswiki/bin>
     Options +ExecCGI
       SetHandler perl-script
       PerlResponseHandler Foswiki::Engine::Apache
+     <FilesMatch "^(excel2topics|topics2excel|table2excel)$">
+       SetHandler cgi-script
+     </FilesMatch>
   </Directory>

-- FlorianSchlichting - 22 Mar 2012

Added Config.spec with switchboard entries.

There are loads of other problems with this plugin:

• does not work on modern perl>=5.26.0
• fails to create proper ms-excel -> it is corrupted on its way to the browser
• examples fail with an error "missing IssueTemplate"

-- MichaelDaum - 21 Jun 2018

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