You’re wrapping up a Java-based application that processes Excel spreadsheets. Everything works perfectly — until someone points out that the XLSX files your app generates still contain hidden metadata. Author names, creation dates, editing histories… all embedded quietly in the background. Suddenly, it’s clear that these seemingly harmless details could pose security, privacy, and compliance risks.
That’s where GroupDocs.Metadata Cloud Java SDK comes in. With just a few API calls, you can remove metadata from XLSX files without touching the spreadsheet’s data, formatting, or formulas. The SDK integrates smoothly with Java REST API projects, making it easy to process files stored locally or in cloud storage platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3. No complex parsing logic. No heavy dependencies. Just clean, secure spreadsheets every time.
This approach is ideal for developers building everything from lightweight automation tools to enterprise-grade document processing systems. The Cloud Java SDK is platform-independent, so it works across Windows, macOS, and Linux. And because the metadata removal happens server-side in the cloud, you save time on setup and maintenance while ensuring consistent, high-quality results. Your users get the peace of mind they need, and you get a cleaner, safer, and more professional output. For a detailed guide complete with code examples, please refer to our article today.
Working coding sample:
package com.groupdocs;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.metadata.client.*;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.metadata.api.*;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.metadata.model.*;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.metadata.model.requests.*;
public class RemoveMetadataFromXLSX {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Step 1: Configure your API credentials for authentication
String MyAppKey = "your-app-key";
String MyAppSid = "your-app-sid";
Configuration configuration = new Configuration(MyAppKey, MyAppSid);
// Step 2: Initialize the MetadataApi class
MetadataApi apiInstance = new MetadataApi(configuration);
try {
// Step 3: Set up the options for removing metadata
RemoveOptions options = new RemoveOptions();
FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo();
fileInfo.setFilePath("SampleFiles/source.xlsx");
options.setFileInfo(fileInfo);
// Step 4: Define search criteria for metadata removal
SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
NameOptions nameOptions = new NameOptions();
nameOptions.setValue("Title");
searchCriteria.setNameOptions(nameOptions);
options.setSearchCriteria(searchCriteria);
// Step 5: Create and process metadata removal request
RemoveRequest request = new RemoveRequest(options);
RemoveResult response = apiInstance.remove(request);
// Step 6: Print the removal result
System.out.println("Metadata removal successful.");
System.out.println("Changes: " + response.getRemovedCount());
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("An error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}