Using a Custom ContentType

You can specify a different format for a Visualforce page by using the ContentType attribute on the <apex:page> tag. This sets the Content-Type HTTP header for the response to the value of the page’s ContentType attribute.

The ContentType attribute takes a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) media type as a value, such as application/vnd.ms-excel, text/csv, or image/gif.

Browsers can behave unpredictably if you set an invalid ContentType. For more information about valid MIME media types, see http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/.

Note

Microsoft Excel ContentType Example

To display Visualforce page data in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, use the contentType attribute on the <apex:page> tag, and specify a value of application/vnd.ms-excel.

For example, the following page builds a simple list of contacts. It’s a simplified version of the example shown in Building a Table of Data in a Page.

1<apex:page standardController="Account">
2
3  <!-- This page must be accessed with an Account Id in the URL. For example: 
4       https://MyDomainName--c.vf.force.com/apex/myPage?id=001D000000JRBet -->
5
6    <apex:pageBlock title="Contacts">
7        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!account.Contacts}" var="contact">
8            <apex:column value="{!contact.Name}"/>
9            <apex:column value="{!contact.MailingCity}"/>
10            <apex:column value="{!contact.Phone}"/>
11        </apex:pageBlockTable>
12    </apex:pageBlock>
13</apex:page>

To display this page in Excel, add the contentType attribute to the <apex:page> tag, as follows:

1<apex:page standardController="Account" contentType="application/vnd.ms-excel">
2    <apex:pageBlock title="Contacts">
3        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!account.Contacts}" var="contact">
4            <apex:column value="{!contact.Name}"/>
5            <apex:column value="{!contact.MailingCity}"/>
6            <apex:column value="{!contact.Phone}"/>
7        </apex:pageBlockTable>
8    </apex:pageBlock>
9</apex:page>

If the page doesn’t display properly in Excel, try a different MIME type, such as text/csv.

Visualforce Developer Guide

Using a Custom ContentType

Microsoft Excel ContentType Example