So I made a simple Java Agent that creates a simple Excel file and embed it as an attachment. First of all you need to download Apache POI.

Create a new Java Agent. Import the poi.jar as archive. Also import the dependencies commons-logging.jar and log4j.jar

Edit your JavaAgent.java

Take a look at this code and implement your own agent (our copy it if you’re too lazy to understand).

Past it where the comment is (Your code goes here).

// (Your code goes here)
Workbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
Sheet sheet = wb.createSheet("Sheet 1");
Row row = sheet.createRow(0);
row.createCell(0).setCellValue("Hello Lotus");
Document doc = agentContext.getCurrentDatabase().createDocument();

RichTextItem item = doc.createRichTextItem("item");
File tempFile = new File(doc.getNoteID());
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(tempFile);

wb.write(out);
out.close();

item.embedObject(EmbeddedObject.EMBED_ATTACHMENT, null, tempFile.getAbsolutePath(), "Excel.xls");
doc.save();

tempFile.delete();
getAgentOutput().println("Done!");

Make sure that you import the classes after you pasted the code. Press Ctrl+1 on the errors.

If you have some questions? Place a comment or contact me at twitter @JavaWithMarcus

There are some solutions to change de webui-jsf.jar library to hardcode the URL, since this is not the best solution, because you have to create a patch for every project (even create a patch if you move the project from test to production envoirement).

So i’ve looked in the code (shipped with Netbeans) and made a little fix. I determine the server URL from the HttpServletContext.

My fix:

Edited com.sun.webui.jsf.util.JavaScriptUtilities

The following method is little bit changed to determine the jsFile String

   private static void renderJavaScriptInclude(UIComponent component,
            ResponseWriter writer, String file) throws  IOException
        if (file == null) {
            return;
        }
        String baseURL = "";
        try
        {
            HttpServletRequest req = (HttpServletRequest)FacesContext
                 .getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest();
            StringBuffer url = req.getRequestURL();
            baseURL = url.substring(0, url.indexOf("/",10));
            // HTTPS fix over LB
            if (baseURL.indexOf(":443") >0)
            {
                baseURL = baseURL.replaceFirst("http://", "https://").replaceFirst(":443", "");
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            baseURL = "";
        }
        String jsFile = baseURL + getTheme().getPathToJSFile(file);

You can also download the patched jar file and put it in your netbeans directory/visualweb2/modules/ext/

Finally some annoying bugs are fixed now. Visual Designer ICEfaces (Netbeans) works almost like a charm now.
There are some small things missing (like effects) but these things are easlily to work around in JSP edit mode.

Download here