The data validation functionalities of Excel could not be accomplished in POI 3.0. There is indeed a previous bug relating to this (Bugzilla # 27511). A fix is also been provided there. But the fix provided there works only with POI 2.5.x. The additional class files provided there HSSFDataValidation, DVALRecord, DVRecord) tries to call some methods in the base classes of this API, but unfortunately methods with the required signatures no longer exist in POI 3.0. Hence trying to compile these classes throws exceptions (shown below). "DVRecord.java": org.apache.poi.hssf.record.DVRecord should be declared abstract; it does not define fillFields (org.apache.poi.hssf.record.RecordInputStream) in org.apache.poi.hssf.record.Record at line 38, column 1 "DVRecord.java": cannot resolve symbol: constructor Record (short,short,byte[]) in class org.apache.poi.hssf.record.Record at line 137, column 9 "DVRecord.java": cannot resolve symbol: constructor Record (short,short,byte [],int)in class org.apache.poi.hssf.record.Record at line 150, column 9 "DVRecord.java": createPtg(org.apache.poi.hssf.record.RecordInputStream) in org.apache.poi.hssf.record.formula.Ptg cannot be applied to (byte[],int) at line 198, column 26 Is there way through which these Data Validation features could be implemented in POI 3.0?
The DVRecord and DVALRecord patches from bug 27511 were updated to the latest API and applied a little while ago (check svn trunk). Do they now do all that you need?
Guessing they do :) Re-open if there's still something missing