YII2 moonlandsoft\phpexcel\Excel::import file does not exist error - php

Question

I have a requirement to fetch data from an excel file through a widget (i.e) moonlandsoft/phpexcel/Excel in YII2. For testing, I am trying to place the file in the appropriate view directory (Where I have the below coding in the view file) and test the code. But an error saying
file doesn't exist
is occurring. Its because I don't know the exact location where the widget trying to fetch data. Where should I place the excel file ( test.ods ) to test?
<?php
use moonland\phpexcel\Excel;
$filename = "test.ods";
$data = Excel::import(
$filename, [
'setFirstRecordAsKeys' => true
]
);
print_r($data);
exit;

Answer 1

You need to place the file inside the web directory and not in the views directory as web folder is the place which is publically accessible and includes the entry script index.php.
So place your file in the web directory if you are using
yii2-app-basic YOUR_PROJECT_ROOT/web
yii2-advance-app YOUR_PROJECT_ROOT/frontend/web or YOUR_PROJECT_ROOT/backend/web
and your script will start working and you can see the array printed.
Apart from getting it working, my opinion is you should not use this extension because
It is using the PHPExcel which is deprecated and replaced by PHPSpreadsheet you can see the message on the console when you install this extension for the first time
Package phpoffice/phpexcel is abandoned, you should avoid using it.
Use phpoffice/phpspreadsheet instead.
PhpSpreadsheet is the next version of PHPExcel. It breaks compatibility to dramatically improve the code base quality (namespaces, PSR compliance, use of latest PHP language features, etc.).
Because all efforts have shifted to PhpSpreadsheet, PHPExcel will no longer be maintained. All contributions for PHPExcel, patches and new features, should target PhpSpreadsheet develop branch.
And above all the extension is abandoned and no more maintained since 2016 there are several pull request that was never merged including the update to PHPSpreadsheet but nothing.
A better alternative could be arieslee/yii2-phpspreadsheet which is a modified version of the same extension you are using and upgraded to PHPSpreadsheet, you won't need to change anything in the code its the same extension with same methods.