Apache poi putting hyperlink in images

This is a Method I use for inserting images as icons in Excel:

public void insertIcons(String URL, Sheet sheet, int colBegin, int colEnd, int rowBegin, int rowEnd) {
    try {
        InputStream iconInput = new FileInputStream(URL);
        byte[] byteTransf = IOUtils.toByteArray(iconInput);
        int pictureIdx = workbook.addPicture(byteTransf, org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Workbook.PICTURE_TYPE_PNG);
        iconInput.close();


        CreationHelper helper = workbook.getCreationHelper();
        Drawing drawingIcon = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();

        ClientAnchor anchorIcon = helper.createClientAnchor();
        anchorIcon.setCol1(colBegin);
        anchorIcon.setCol2(colEnd);
        anchorIcon.setRow1(rowBegin);
        anchorIcon.setRow2(rowEnd);

        Picture iconReady = drawingIcon.createPicture(anchorIcon, pictureIdx);
        iconReady.resize(1);

    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

This is me using this method to create the Icon:

insertIcons(".idea/Icons/table.png", sheetName, 4, 4, 6, 9);

Is it possible to put a Hyperlink in this Icon to either go to another Sheet in this same Spreadsheet, or to a website?

I read that apparently there is no support in POI, but it could be possible using the underlying lowlevel-API. However I haven't been able to actually succeed in using it.

Any suggestions?

If you are fine with only supporting XSSF, then this really can be done using the underlying low level objects.

How to start? Create a workbook using Excel having pictures having hyperlinks in it. Then unzip the *.xlsx and have a look into the /xl/drawings/drawing1.xml. There you will find:

<xdr:pic>
 <xdr:nvPicPr>
  <xdr:cNvPr id="1" name="Picture 1" descr="Picture">
   <a:hlinkClick r:id="rId2"/>
  </xdr:cNvPr>
...

So the picture has non visual picture settings having non visual properties having a hyperlink click having a rId set.

The rId points to a relationship, so look at xl/drawings/_rels/drawing1.xml.rels. There you will find the hyperlink target set to that rId.

So we need setting the non visual picture settings having non visual properties having a hyperlink click. But also we need setting the relationship for getting the rId.

To do the first we start at org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.spreadsheetDrawing.CTPicture. The CTPicture we can get from XSSFPicture.

To do the second we need PackagePart.addExternalRelationship where PackagePart can be got from XSSFDrawing.

Complete Example:

import java.io.*;

import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.*;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.*;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.ClientAnchor.AnchorType;
import org.apache.poi.util.IOUtils;

import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.spreadsheetDrawing.CTPicture;
import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.spreadsheetDrawing.CTPictureNonVisual;
import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.main.CTNonVisualDrawingProps;
import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.main.CTHyperlink;

import org.apache.poi.openxml4j.opc.PackageRelationship;
import org.apache.poi.openxml4j.opc.PackageRelationshipTypes;

public class CreateExcelPicturesHyperlink {

 private static Picture drawImageOnExcelSheet(Sheet sheet, int row1, int col1, 
  int row2, int col2, String pictureurl, int picturetype) throws Exception {

  InputStream is = new FileInputStream(pictureurl);
  byte[] bytes = IOUtils.toByteArray(is);
  int pictureIdx = sheet.getWorkbook().addPicture(bytes, picturetype);
  is.close();

  CreationHelper helper = sheet.getWorkbook().getCreationHelper();

  Drawing drawing = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();

  ClientAnchor anchor = helper.createClientAnchor();
  anchor.setAnchorType(AnchorType.MOVE_AND_RESIZE);

  anchor.setRow1(row1); //first anchor determines upper left position
  anchor.setCol1(col1); 
  anchor.setRow2(row2); //second anchor determines bottom right position
  anchor.setCol2(col2);

  Picture picture = drawing.createPicture(anchor, pictureIdx);
  return picture;
 }

 private static void setHyperlinkToPicture(Picture picture, String hyperlinkurl) throws Exception {
  if (picture instanceof XSSFPicture) {
   XSSFPicture xssfpicture = (XSSFPicture)picture;

   XSSFDrawing drawing = xssfpicture.getSheet().createDrawingPatriarch();
   PackageRelationship packagerelationship = 
    drawing.getPackagePart().addExternalRelationship(hyperlinkurl, PackageRelationshipTypes.HYPERLINK_PART);
   String rid = packagerelationship.getId();

   CTPicture ctpicture = xssfpicture.getCTPicture();
   CTPictureNonVisual ctpicturenonvisual = ctpicture.getNvPicPr();
   if (ctpicturenonvisual == null) ctpicturenonvisual = ctpicture.addNewNvPicPr();
   CTNonVisualDrawingProps ctnonvisualdrawingprops = ctpicturenonvisual.getCNvPr();
   if (ctnonvisualdrawingprops == null) ctnonvisualdrawingprops = ctpicturenonvisual.addNewCNvPr();
   CTHyperlink cthyperlink = ctnonvisualdrawingprops.getHlinkClick();
   if (cthyperlink == null) cthyperlink = ctnonvisualdrawingprops.addNewHlinkClick();
   cthyperlink.setId(rid);

  }
 }

 public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

  Workbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();
  Sheet sheet = workbook.createSheet("Sheet1");

  Picture picture = drawImageOnExcelSheet(sheet, 2, 2, 4, 4, "samplePict1.jpeg", Workbook.PICTURE_TYPE_JPEG);
  setHyperlinkToPicture(picture, "http://www.google.de");

  workbook.createSheet("Sheet2");
  picture = drawImageOnExcelSheet(sheet, 6, 2, 8, 4, "samplePict2.png", Workbook.PICTURE_TYPE_PNG);
  setHyperlinkToPicture(picture, "#Sheet2!B3");

  workbook.write(new FileOutputStream("CreateExcelPicturesHyperlink.xlsx"));
  workbook.close();

 }

}