How to open an Excel document from SharePoint into Chrome/Firefox in readonly/edit mode

With Sharepoint 2010, when you use Internet Explorer you can open an Office document in readonly or in edit mode. Also, when trying to open an Excel file in Firefox/Chrome it will probably open the ugly xslviewer and won’t let you deal with your file.

After searching a bit about it, I found a clue that helped me to find a good solution: on Firefox/Chrome when you click on an Excel file, you’ll now have a modal asking if you want to open it in edit or readonly mode!

To achieve this result you have to insert the below Javascript code somewhere into your masterpage:

/**
 * fix problem with Excel documents on Firefox/Chrome
 * @param  {HTMLElement} p the <A> element
 * @param  {HTMLEvent} a the click event
 * @param  {Boolean} h TRUE
 * @param  {Boolean} e FALSE
 * @param  {Boolean} g FALSE
 * @param  {Strin} k the ActiveX command (e.g. "SharePoint.OpenDocuments.3")
 * @param  {Number} c 0
 * @param  {String} o the activeX command, here we look at "SharePoint.OpenDocuments"
 * @param  {String} m
 * @param  {String} b the replacement URL to the xslviewer
 */
var bak_DispEx;
var modalOpenDocument; // it will be use with the modal
SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilEventNotified(function() {
  bak_DispEx = _DispEx;
  _DispEx=function(p, a, h, e, g, k, c, o, m, b, j, l, i, f, d) {
    // if o==="SharePoint.OpenDocuments" && !IsClientAppInstalled(o)
    // in that case we want to open ask the user if he/she wants to readonly or edit the file
    var fileURL = b.replace(/.*_layouts\/xlviewer\.aspx\?id=(.*)/, "$1");
    if (o === "SharePoint.OpenDocuments" && !IsClientAppInstalled(o) && /\.xlsx?$/.test(fileURL)) {
      // if the URL doesn't start with http
      if (!/^http/.test(fileURL)) {
        fileURL = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + fileURL;
      }
      var ohtml = document.createElement('div');
      ohtml.style.padding = "10px";
      ohtml.style.display = "inline-block";
      ohtml.style.width = "200px";
      ohtml.style.width = "200px";
      ohtml.innerHTML = '<style>'
                      + '.opendocument_button { background-color:#fdfdfd; border:1px solid #ababab; color:#444; display:inline-block; padding: 7px 10px; }'
                      + '.opendocument_button:hover { box-shadow: none }'
                      + '#opendocument_readonly,#opendocument_edit { float:none; font-size: 100%; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0; overflow: visible; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0; height:auto }'
                      + '.opendocument_ul { list-style-type:none;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0 }'
                      + '</style>'
                      + 'You are about to open:'
                      + '<ul class="opendocument_ul">'
                      + '  <li>Name: <b>'+fileURL.split("/").slice(-1)+'</b></li>'
                      + '  <li>From: <b>'+window.location.hostname+'</b></li>'
                      + '</ul>'
                      + 'How would like to open this file?'
                      + '<ul class="opendocument_ul">'
                      + '  <li><label><input type="radio" name="opendocument_choices" id="opendocument_readonly" checked> Read Only</label></li>'
                      + '  <li><label><input type="radio" name="opendocument_choices" id="opendocument_edit"> Edit</label></li>'
                      + '</ul>'
                      + '<div style="text-align: center;margin-top: 20px;"><button type="button" class="opendocument_button" style="background-color: #2d9f2d;color: #fff;" onclick="modalOpenDocument.close(document.getElementById(\'opendocument_edit\').checked)">Open</button> <button type="button" class="opendocument_button" style="margin-left:10px" onclick="modalOpenDocument.close(-1)">Cancel</button></div>';
      // show the modal
      modalOpenDocument=SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({
        html:ohtml,
        dialogReturnValueCallback:function(ret) {
          if (ret!==-1) {
            if (ret === true) { // edit
              // reformat the fileURL
              var ext;
              if (/\.xlsx?$/.test(b)) ext = "ms-excel";
              if (/\.docx?$/.test(b)) ext = "ms-word"; // not currently supported
              fileURL = ext + ":ofe|u|" + fileURL;
            }
            window.location.href = fileURL; // open the file
          }
        }
      });
      a.preventDefault();
      a.stopImmediatePropagation()
      a.cancelBubble = true;
      a.returnValue = false;
      return false;
    }
    return bak_DispEx.apply(this, arguments);
  }
}, "sp.scriptloaded-core.js")

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