Password protected xls/xlsx file in java

Question

I have created password protected zip file which has xls file with the help of this http://java.sys-con.com/node/1258827.

My question is ,Is there any java api which will create password protected xls file instead of zip file. I want to directly apply password on xls file.Encryption/Decryption is the option but want to prompt when when double clicked on file.

edit: I got this
HSSFSheet.protectSheet("xyz");but it only makes sheet read only.

Even I have tried this hssfworkbook.writeProtectWorkbook("abc", "abc");but its not prompting for password.

Edit1:There is the method in org.apache.poi.hssf.record.crypto.Biff8EncryptionKey package to open password protected excel file org.apache.poi.hssf.record.crypto.Biff8EncryptionKey.setCurrentUserPassword(password); Is there any method to set password on unprotected excel file?

Edit2: I tried JExcel API

Workbook w=Workbook.getWorkbook(new File("c:\\employees22533.xls"));
Sheet ws=null;
ws=w.getSheet("Employee List");
SheetSettings sh=ws.getSettings();
sh.setPassword("abc");

But its not setting any password

Answer 1

You can do it using JACOB. Here is the code for no protection temp.xsl file to protected temptest.xsl file. You need to have jacob.jar and jacob-XX-XX.dll in your classpath

package test;

import com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent;
import com.jacob.com.Dispatch;
import com.jacob.com.Variant;

public class excel 
{
 private ActiveXComponent excelApp = null;
 public excel()
 {
 String xlsFile = "D:\\temp.xls";
 excelApp = new ActiveXComponent("Excel.Application");
 excelApp.setProperty("Visible", new Variant(false));
 Object workbooks = excelApp.getProperty("Workbooks").toDispatch();
 Object workbook = Dispatch.invoke((Dispatch) workbooks,"Open",Dispatch.Method,new Object[] {xlsFile, new Variant(false),new Variant(true) }, new int[1]).toDispatch();           

 Dispatch.call((Dispatch)workbook, "SaveAs", new Variant("D:\\temptest.xls"),new Variant("1"),new Variant ("pass"));

 excelApp.invoke("Quit", new Variant[] {});
 }

 public static void main(String arg[])
 {
  System.out.println("hello");
  new excel();
 }

 }

Answer 2

I've personally used JExcelApi but I do not remember having seen something about password protection into it. As far as JExcelApi is concerned there are a number of features where the answer is known to be "No":

• Pivot Tables
• Dropdown Lists
• Rich Text in cells
• Set repeating rows
• Password Protection

I personally think that if Password Protection would've been possible(with open source api's) Their would be a lot of tutorials available on internet and you could search them simply by a quick Google search, Unfortunately none of the freely available Java spreadsheet APIs seems to support writing encrypted spreadsheets.

However If you're willing to use commercial api/library then see this