I know this is a little out of place but I was wondering if anyone has used Apache POI with an ajax event component, a4j:commandButton or a4j:commandLink.

Issue: All is fine using h:commandButton. However, I wanted to use a rich:modalPanel while the Excel workbook was being created. So I used

{code}

<a4j:region id="rptExport" renderRegionOnly="true">
       <a4j:commandButton id="rptExportBtn" immediate="false"
                                       onclick="Richfaces.showModalPanel('exportModalPanel')"
                                       oncomplete="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('exportModalPanel')"
                                       actionListener="#{OptimizationToolManagedBean.exportNonOptimalRoutesToExcel}"
                                       value="Export">
        </a4j:commandButton>
        <rich:modalPanel id="exportModalPanel" autosized="true">
              <h:panelGrid id="exportPanel" columns="2" style="text-align:center;">
                    <h:outputLabel id="exportText" value="Exporting" styleClass="fieldLabel"/>
                         <h:graphicImage id="eportImg" value="/images/indicator.gif"/>
               </h:panelGrid>
       </rich:modalPanel>
</a4j:region>

{code}

The actionListener is fired, the modal panel is displayed but the Excel app is not launched and the modal panel never goes away as if oncomplete never happens. I suspect it has to do with FacesContext fc.responseComplete();