New (2014) spreadsheets will fail to download as xls (Excel) - source workaround included

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Short version
=============

- Google Drive's "new Sheets" won't download as xls in GDocBackup.

- The quickest fix is to grab the source, apply the following workaround, build 
it*, and use that.

- Hopefully the developer/owner (Fabrizio) will take a look at this workaround 
and integrate it in to the official build somehow, making things easier for 
future users. :)

- Hacky workaround:

In GDocBackupLib/Backup.cs, change line 444 from:

gdocStream = request.Download(doc, downloadtype.ToString());

to:

gdocStream = request.Download(doc, "xlsx");

- That's it. Hope this helps someone!

* (there are a couple of steps to building this from source, but I won't go 
over them here, as they're not specific to this issue).



Long version
============

In the latest version of GDocBackup (0.7.6.187), "new Sheets" (the default in 
Drive as of March/April 2014) will fail to download in Excel format. (All the 
other format options in GDocBackup seem to work fine.)

I think I've finally managed to isolate the issue.


Reproduce
---------

1. Create a new sheet in Drive. 
2. Add some content, name it, etc.
3. Launch GDocBackup, make sure "Export format" for "Spreadsheet" is set to 
"xls" (or, if "Enable multi-export" is checked, that "xls" is checked in the 
column for "Spreadsheet").
4. Exec.


Expected
--------

- "New Sheets" download as Excel-format files.


Result
------

- GDocBackup reports "ERROR".
- The log reports:

DOC-ERROR: (attempt 0) Google.GData.Client.GDataRequestException: Execution of 
request failed: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/export?id=[key]&exportFormat=xls ---> 
System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
   at Google.GData.Client.GDataRequest.Execute()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Google.GData.Client.GDataRequest.Execute()
   at Google.GData.Client.GDataGAuthRequest.Execute(Int32 retryCounter)
   at Google.GData.Client.Service.Query(Uri queryUri, DateTime ifModifiedSince, String etag, Int64& contentLength)
   at Google.GData.Client.Service.Query(Uri queryUri)
   at Google.Documents.DocumentsRequest.Download(Document document, String exportFormat)
   at GDocBackupLib.Backup.ExecBackupSingleUser(String username) in c:\[...]\GDocBackupLib\Backup.cs:line 444


Workaround
----------

In GDocBackupLib\Backup.cs, make the following change, from:

442:  else if (doc.Type == Document.DocumentType.Spreadsheet)
443:  {
444:      gdocStream = request.Download(doc, downloadtype.ToString());
445:  }

to:

442:  else if (doc.Type == Document.DocumentType.Spreadsheet)
443:  {
444:      gdocStream = request.Download(doc, "xlsx");
445:  }

(Note that only line 444 is changing.)

It should work for new AND old Sheets.

Be warned, however: I don't know how robust this workaround is. YMMV! Give it a 
good test before you merrily hit "Exec" and somehow wipe your startup's 4,000 
irreplaceable spreadsheets. :)


Notes
-----

- I was pretty surprised that this worked at all, but having tested it a few 
ways, it seems fine.

- I've got a feeling that the problem here is ultimately on Google's end. 
Having searched, I can't find a report that seems to get this specific, so I'll 
try and report it to them if I get the time.

- Thanks Fabrizio for this great tool!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by [email protected] on 2 Sep 2014 at 5:44