Clicking URL Hyperlink from MS Excel sends a http

问题:

Background : I have a functionality where user can export excel files from my web based application. The excel has details pertaining to certain records. There is a record id column which has an embedded link to the direct URL for viewing that record in the application.

Issue : On clicking the hyperlink from the excel spread sheet, the correct URL does not load in the browser. Instead the generic URL landing page is loaded. However, from Libre Office it works fine and the correct page is loaded.

Debugging results : When clicking the link from excel, we are getting http 'HEAD' request from the client with user agent 'Microsoft Office Excel 2013'. (I tried logging $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] and $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] )

Please suggest what I should do in order to get around this. Should I write server side code ? Is it possible to fix this using Apache mod rewrite ?

Environment : Web Server - Apache, Server side code - CodeIgniter 3 php framework, Server OS - Ubunutu 14.04, Client OS - windows, MS Excel versions - 2013, 2016