I have the following codes, it works in simple class, but not in stateless session bean at all, and NO any exception thrown: try{ String fileName = "d:/kk.xls"; HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(new POIFSFileSystem(new FileInputStream (fileName))); } catch(Exception e){ System.out.println("Hello, POI"); }; System.out.println("Hello, POI"); There is no even sigle "Hello, POI" printed.
There is little evidence to suggest POI would behave differently whether called from a simple java prog or any complex container. The problem was in/near the session bean.