Empty excel attachment in mail received from SMTP on Outlook

gs185008 · New User Joined: 12 May 2009 Posts: 3 Location: delhi

Hi,
Our client recently migrated from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook. Till then, they were able to receive and open/ view all attachments sent thru SMTP in Lotus Notes but after migration, same attachment is opening as empty or blank (even though there is data in file) in Outlook while it is opening correctly in Lotus Notes.
The only difference I could find in SMTP instructions is CONTENT-TYPE is TEXT/PLAIN while attachment extension is .XLS. Could this be an issue for Outlook and not for Notes?

Need help urgently.

Bill Woodger · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:06 pm

For "urgently", pay someone to do it.

Is there even a Mainframe involved in this? If the same data in Lotus Notes works and doesn't in Microsoft Outlook, you have to find out why before you can decide if anything needs to change (even if you are using a Mainframe at all).

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:11 pm

gs185008 · New User Joined: 12 May 2009 Posts: 3 Location: delhi

Hi Bill,
Yes, we are using Mainframe since long

We have digged into COBOL code to find any difference but there is not any. So, am not sure whether it is due to the issue I outlined in my previous query but could be Outlook configuration issue as well. Not sure though.

Robert Sample · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:53 pm

It sounds like an OUTLOOK issue to me, with no bearing on the mainframe at all. Are you truly sending .XLS data (which must be transferred as binary), or are you sending a CSV file being opened by Excel (which can be transferred as text instead of binary)? If the latter, you might try changing the attachment extension to TXT instead of XLS as OUTLOOK might be assuming the XLS really is an Excel work sheet.

gs185008 · New User Joined: 12 May 2009 Posts: 3 Location: delhi

Hi Bob,
We are sending data delimited by X'05' (tab) and file extension as .XLS. This file is getting received correctly in Lotus Notes and opening correctly but same file is opening as blank in Outlook.
To us it seems issue during exchange migration from Lotus Notes to Outlook.
Also, we noticed once mail with attachment is received on Outlook, the excel attachment is corrupt by then. Even if I send the same mail (received on Outlook from Mainframe) with attachment on Lotus Notes to verify, by then the damage was done and file does not even open up on Lotus.

steve-myers · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:57 am

Robert Sample · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:57 pm

It is definitely NOT a mainframe issue since the same file going to Lotus Notes can be opened while the file going to Outlook cannot be opened. You should open a problem with Microsoft.

David Maher · New User Joined: 17 Aug 2015 Posts: 3 Location: Australia

OK, here's the deal.
There is a slight variation between Lotus Notes and OUTLOOK when emailing a .CSV File as an attachment.
Using Lotus Notes you would have the SMTP Header information concatenated ahead of a .CSV Data file, and this works fine.
With OUTLOOK there needs to be a blank line inserted between the SMTP Header and the CSV Data for OUTLOOK to recognize the data.
If there is not a blank line OUTLOOK will attach an EMPTY Xcel Spreadsheet.