How to use PHPExcel external library with Yii

Trying to learn and help some other programmers to find their solutions on the Yii Forum (I think is a superb way to learn the framework), I was facing one challenge with an external library that a fellow programmer wanted to use -quite good indeed: PHPExcel. And what is PHPExcel?

PHPExcel - OpenXML - Create Excel2007 documents in PHP - Spreadsheet engine

Project providing a set of classes for the PHP programming language, which allow you to write to and read from different file formats, like Excel 2007, PDF, HTML, ... This project is built around Microsoft's OpenXML standard and PHP. Checkout the [Features](http://phpexcel.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Features "PHPExcel") this class set provides, such as setting spreadsheet meta data (author, title, description, ...), multiple worksheets, different fonts and font styles, cell borders, fills, gradients, adding images to your spreadsheet and much, much more!

The Challenge ¶

The fellow programmer (Jack Fiallos) had a problem of using the libraries within Yii. He was surprised that he could easily use the libraries outside of the framework but not within the framework itself. At first we didn't think about it but suddenly we thought about the autoloading features of Yii and looked into the guts of PHPExcel to find out what was causing the problems.

We were right, PHPExcel has an autoloading feature itself that when a classes is called (i.e. PHPExcel_Shared_ZipStreamWrapper) the first part of the name is actually reflecting the folder's path where the class is located (i.e. PHPExcel_Shared_ZipStreamWrapper = PHPExcel/Shared_ZipStreamWrapper.php). Please review the following code (extracted from PHPExcel_Autoloader class):

public static function Load($pObjectName){
    if ((class_exists($pObjectName)) || (strpos($pObjectName, 'PHPExcel') === False)) {
       return false;
    }
    // this is the code that shows what I am saying
    $pObjectFilePath =  PHPEXCEL_ROOT.
       str_replace('_',DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,$pObjectName).'.php';
 
    if ((file_exists($pObjectFilePath) === false) 
       || (is_readable($pObjectFilePath) === false)) {
        return false;
     }
     require($pObjectFilePath);
}   //  function Load()

Solution ¶

The workaround to this problem (at least the one I know) is by making use of the spl_autoload_register and spl_autoload_unregister PHP's functions. The following code shows how we got the library working -I assume that you have downloaded the PHPExcel files, unzipped its contents and place them into a phpexcel folder within your application's protected/extensions folder:

// 
// VERY DUMMY TEST CONTROLLER
// FOR THE SAKE OF THE EXAMPLE
// TEST IT AS http : / / <yourapplicationurl> / index.php ? r=test/test
 
class TestController extends Controller{
 
     // no layouts here
     public $layout = '';
 
     public function actionTest()
     {
     //
     // get a reference to the path of PHPExcel classes 
     $phpExcelPath = Yii::getPathOfAlias('ext.phpexcel.Classes');
 
     // Turn off our amazing library autoload 
      spl_autoload_unregister(array('YiiBase','autoload'));        
 
     //
     // making use of our reference, include the main class
     // when we do this, phpExcel has its own autoload registration
     // procedure (PHPExcel_Autoloader::Register();)
    include($phpExcelPath . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'PHPExcel.php');
 
     // Create new PHPExcel object
     $objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
 
     // Set properties
     $objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
    ->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
    ->setTitle("PDF Test Document")
    ->setSubject("PDF Test Document")
    ->setDescription("Test document for PDF, generated using PHP classes.")
    ->setKeywords("pdf php")
    ->setCategory("Test result file");
 
 
     // Add some data
     $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
            ->setCellValue('A1', 'Hello')
            ->setCellValue('B2', 'world!')
            ->setCellValue('C1', 'Hello')
            ->setCellValue('D2', 'world!');
 
      // Miscellaneous glyphs, UTF-8
     $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
            ->setCellValue('A4', 'Miscellaneous glyphs')
            ->setCellValue('A5', 'éàèùâêîôûëïüÿäöüç');
 
      // Rename sheet
      $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setTitle('Simple');
 
      // Set active sheet index to the first sheet, 
      // so Excel opens this as the first sheet
     $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
 
      // Redirect output to a client’s web browser (Excel2007)
      header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
      header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="01simple.pdf"');
      header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
 
      $objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'PDF');
      $objWriter->save('php://output');
      Yii::app()->end();
 
       // 
       // Once we have finished using the library, give back the 
       // power to Yii... 
       spl_autoload_register(array('YiiBase','autoload'));
       }
}

Final Words ¶

This post is using PHPExcel external library as an example, but this procedure should be taken into account when we encounter a problem like this. Whenever you find a library that you wish to include in your Yii application, check out its autoloading functions first.

Total 8 comments

#6628

retomi at 2012/01/23 06:16am

Resolving Yii Autoloader problems with the PHPExcel Autoloader

Look at this solution worked fine for me: http://www.mrsoundless.com/post/2011/04/23/PHPExcel-in-Yii.aspx

#5710

pligor at 2011/11/05 04:09pm

Instead of...

Instead of a code similar as below

public static function loadPHPExcel() {
        spl_autoload_unregister(array('YiiBase','autoload'));   //Turn off our amazing library autoload         
        Yii::import('ext.phpexcel.PligorPHPExcel',true);    //include("$phpExcelPath/PHPExcel.php");    
    }
 
    public static function unLoadPHPExcel() {
        spl_autoload_register(array('YiiBase','autoload')); //give back the power to Yii
    }

Could someone take advantage of the method register auto loader: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/YiiBase#registerAutoloader-detail ??

I cannot get how this autoloading works exactly. Thank you!

#5585

Tyr84 at 2011/10/21 07:46pm

O nice

Tnx for that !! So you need put : spl_autoload_register(array('YiiBase','autoload')); at the end ofo code. I love yii :)

#5174

pligor at 2011/09/21 06:43am

Another approach - buggy (?)

has anyone used this post to integrate PHPExcel inside Yii framework ?

http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php?/topic/18486-new-way-to-use-phpexcel-with-yii-framework/page__p__90988__hl__phpexcel#entry90988

I tried it and it seems buggy. I cannot get Yii to take back the control of autoloading

#5064

pligor at 2011/09/12 04:10am

Read Filter

One important class that accompanies PHPExcel and you should write your own is the ExcelReadFilter class which implements PHPExcel_Reader_IReadFilter.

Because of the whole confusion with the autoload I failed to use it as a component in Yii.

Instead I created a new php file inside the same directory as PHPExcel.php

So its code looks like this:

<?php
require 'PHPExcel.php';
 
class ExcelReadFilter implements PHPExcel_Reader_IReadFilter {
    //class code in here
}

I named the file MyPHPExcel.php and currently I am importing MyPHPExcel.php instead of PHPExcel.php.

If you have any more neat solutions please share (:

#5063

pligor at 2011/09/12 04:02am

Import instead of Include

I tried, instead of include($phpExcelPath . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'PHPExcel.php');, this line:

Yii::import('ext.phpexcel.PHPExcel',true);

and worked well

#2273

homebru at 2010/12/05 03:53pm

Correction Needed

The new version of PHPExcel no longer ships with a 'Classes' folder so your very first functional line:

$phpExcelPath = Yii::getPathOfAlias('ext.phpexcel.Classes');

Needs to be changed to:

$phpExcelPath = Yii::getPathOfAlias('ext.phpexcel');

Thanks for your article - it got me up and running!

#2095

Asgaroth at 2010/11/10 02:00pm

Very usefull

Thats true some times when using big libraries they come with their own autoload.

additional documentation:

http://www.yiiframework.com/wiki/37/integrating-with-other-frameworks

http://blog.walterebert.com/using-external-php-libraries-with-the-yii-framework

http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7304-including-zend/page__p__37038__hl__zend+autoload#entry37038

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