Notes Viewer not opening ZIP files created with Java

hcl-bot · February 15, 2007, 1:21am

I created a Notes Java agent which zip’s a file on my hard drive. When I attach it to Notes document it will not open when clicking the Attachment View button.

If I manually Zip the same file using WinZip and attach it to a Notes document it open fine with the Attachment View button.

Both the Java Zip file and the WinZip file are approx. the same size and I can open the Excel spreadsheet in both of them.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

David

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hcl-bot · February 28, 2007, 10:59am

Subject: BUG for last 7 years: Notes Viewer not opening ZIP files created by Java

We have a Java Notes agent in a Domino application which automatically creates reportsin Zip format and sends them to serveral users on a daily basis. The Lotus Notes R5/R6/R7

View action button in the Attachment property box does not work for Zip files created using Java.

My users are becoming frustrated! This issue seems to pending for the last 7 years.

Does anyone from IBM or any Java developers have an answer to this issue ?

FYI

Notes viewer - Java Zip issue posted in year 2000:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.programmer/browse_thread/thread/149e0cee77d443fa/4f874e0dc926fbc0?lnk=gst&q=lotus+notes+java+zip+view&rnum=1&hl=en#

Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer

From: “rjb” rjbl...@worldonline.nl

Date: 2000/05/23

Subject: java.util.zip Problem?? Help

We have a servlet that creates a report and attaches it as a .ZIP file

attachment. The problem seems to be that the format of the .ZIP file is not

quite right. We can open this with most programs for .ZIP files, but the

following fails:

When a user receives the attachment in Lotus Notes4.6.x, and chooses the

View Attachment option, the system returns the following error message:-

The file is corrupt.

Is there some deviation from the .ZIP file standard by Sun. I have tried

this using both JDK1.1.7 on Linux, and JDK1.2.2 on Win9X/NT and Linux - both

result in the same problem. If I create a file using WinZip or PKZIP, Lotus

Notes does not have a problem with the file at all.

Any suggestions?

REPLY 1:

Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer

From: p...@best.com (Peter van der Linden)

Date: 2000/05/23

Subject: Re: java.util.zip Problem?? Help

rjb rjbl...@worldonline.nl wrote:

When a user receives the attachment in Lotus Notes4.6.x, and chooses the

View Attachment option, the system returns the following error message:-

The file is corrupt.

Is there some deviation from the .ZIP file standard by Sun.

The zip format used in Java is intended to be absolutely the

standard zip format.

Can you use a binary dump program to see where the difference is?

Can you use that to try to boil it down into the simplest example that

fails? Also check for bugs at the JDC site (address in Java FAQ).

Please report back what you find, this looks interesting.

The Java FAQ is at

                    http://www.afu.com

REPLY 2:

Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer

From: “rjb” rjbl...@worldonline.nl

Date: 2000/05/25

Subject: Re: java.util.zip Problem?? Help

I have zipped a sinlge 2KB file using both methods, and there is a

difference. However, even using the basic no frills options in all other

programs, I cannot put my finger on the reason for this.

FYI -

Zipped with Zip under Linux - Lotus Notes recognises

Zipped with PKZip under Dos - Lotus Notes recognises

Zipped with WinZip7.0 - Lotus Notes recognises

Zipped with WinZip8.0 - Lotus Notes recognises

Zipped with java.util.zip - Lotus Notes says it is corrupt, but I can open

with WinZip et al.

Now, if I was a betting man, I’d have my money on Sun either doing something

funny. Will check the JDC.

regards

REPLY 3:

Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer

From: Marco Schmidt marcoschm...@geocities.com

Date: 2000/05/26

Subject: Re: java.util.zip Problem?? Help

On Thu, 25 May 2000 17:04:27 +0200, “rjb” rjbl...@worldonline.nl

wrote:

I have zipped a sinlge 2KB file using both methods, and there is a

difference. However, even using the basic no frills options in all other

programs, I cannot put my finger on the reason for this.

Maybe you can make that ZIP archive created from your Java app

available for download via HTTP?! I would take a look at it.

There usually is a small difference in ZIP archives created by

different programs (or with different compression ratio settings).

Regards,

Marco

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hcl-bot · March 8, 2007, 9:40am

Subject: RE: BUG for last 7 years: Notes Viewer not opening ZIP files created by Java

I posted my original question on a Java internet newsgroup and seem to be gettingcloser to the answer as seen in response below…

Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer

From: Chris

Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 18:31:06 -0000

Local: Tues, Mar 6 2007 1:31 pm

Subject: Re: Lotus Notes Viewer not opening ZIP files created using Java

I know of no reason to think that Java is creating ZIP files which are in any

way abnormal (and I’ve written a ZIP file decoder myself, so I do know a little

about the subject). I’d guess that it’s a bug in Notes.

However, without further information – which can only come from the Notes

developers – I don’t see how anyone in the Java world can do more than

speculate.

So the rest of this post is mere speculation…

My /guess/ (and it is only a guess) is that the problem comes somewhere as

Notes attempts to find the “central directory” in the ZIP file. The logic for

doing that involves starting at the end of the file and scanning backwards

looking for a specific bit-pattern, it is then necessary (if you want

reliability) to use some heuristics to check that the data you find immediately

after that bit-pattern makes sense (since the pattern can occur naturally too).

If the heuristics used by Notes are over-strong (i.e. the make some invalid

assumptions) then I can imagine it rejecting Java-generated ZIPs incorrectly.

Another possibility — remote – is that something in the data transfer chain

is changing the ZIP file in a way that causes Notes to reject it (presumably

the Java-generated ZIPs reach the users via a different route from your test

ZIPs created with different tools). For instance I recently came across a case

where a couple of ZIPs had (in some unknown way) had ‘\r\n’ appended to them.

That doesn’t bother most ZIP readers, but /does/ bother my own implementation.

My heuristic checks are stricter than most, and my code (which I may decide to

change) checks that the data /after/ the bit-pattern should reach exactly up to

the end of the file – so random data stuck on the end causes it (correctly,

IMO) to fail.

Another remote possibility is that Notes is unable to deal with ZIPs where any

entry’s size and checksum data /follow/ the item’s contents in the file. If so

(and remember that this is mere unsupported speculation) then that would be a

/gross/ deficiency in the Notes implementation. Gross to the point of

irresponsibility, IMO – which is as good a reason as any to guess that this is

not, in fact, the source of the problem

Still, unlikely though it may be, it’s easy enough to test. This little Java

program creates two ZIPs in the current directory, one has the size/crc

preceding the contents of the single entry; the other is identical except that

the size/crc follows the contents. If Notes can read one but not then other,

then the problem is definitely in Notes.

-- chris

=============================

import java.util.zip.*;

import java.io.*;

public class Enzip

{

public static void

main(String[] args)

throws Exception

{

    // "hello world!" in utf-8"

    byte[] contents = new byte[] {

            0x68, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F,

            0x20, 0x77, 0x6F, 0x72, 0x6C,

            0x64, 0x21

            };



    // write a ZIP where size/crc data follows the contets

    ZipOutputStream zos

        = new ZipOutputStream(

            new BufferedOutputStream(

                new FileOutputStream(

                    "test-follows.zip")));

    ZipEntry entry = new ZipEntry("hello.txt");

    zos.putNextEntry(entry);

    zos.write(contents);

    zos.closeEntry();

    zos.close();



    // write a ZIP where size/crc data precedes the contets

    zos

        = new ZipOutputStream(

            new BufferedOutputStream(

                new FileOutputStream(

                    "test-precedes.zip")));

    entry = new ZipEntry("hello.txt");



    // I worked these out offline

    // they are the only difference from the "follows" case

    entry.setCrc(62177901L);

    entry.setCompressedSize(14L);

    entry.setSize(12);



    zos.putNextEntry(entry);

    zos.write(contents);

    zos.closeEntry();

    zos.close();

}

}

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