title: How to export rich:dataTable to excel
body: <p>I would like to export the contents of a <code>&lt;rich:dataTable&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;rich:extendedDataTable&gt;</code> to excel. </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>I have see that PrimeFaces has the "exporter feature" <a href="http://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/exporter.jsf" rel="noreferrer">http://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/exporter.jsf</a></p></li>
  <li><p>I would like to be able to do something similar to this only with out using PrimeFaces, but with richFaces (version 3.3.3)...(I would like to migrate to RichFaces 4 at some point in the future but am stuck with 3.3.3 for now)</p></li>
  <li><p>I have read that it is possible to build your own using  <a href="http://poi.apache.org/" rel="noreferrer">http://poi.apache.org/</a> but I do not know where to start on implementing something like this...</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Any thoughts about how best to preform the desired export and examples would be much appreciated! </p>