Downloading excel file from controller in code igniter - php

Question

I am having the following issue:
I am using code igniter as php framework, and from one of my views I do an ajax call to a function that generates and xlsx file using PHPExcel and data from mysql database. The file is correctly created in the server but when I try to force_download it won't download anything. Here is the php function:
public function generar_excel($idCotizacion){
isLogged($this->session->userdata('logged_in'));
isAdmin($this->session->userdata('logged_in'));
$cotizacion = $this->cotizacion_model->get_cotizacion_by_id($idCotizacion);
$propuestas = $this->propuesta_model->getPropuestasPorCotizacion($idCotizacion);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
require_once 'application/libraries/PHPExcel-1.8/Classes/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php';
require_once 'application/libraries/PHPExcel-1.8/Classes/PHPExcel.php';
$excel2 = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createReader('Excel2007');
$excel2 = $excel2->load('prueba.xlsx'); // Empty Sheet
$excel2->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
$excel2->getActiveSheet()->setCellValue('C8', $cotizacion["capitas"])
->setCellValue('C2', $cotizacion["empresa_nombre"])
->setCellValue('C9', $cotizacion["masa_salarial"])
->setCellValue('B11', $cotizacion["aseguradora_actual"])
->setCellValue('B13', $cotizacion["variable"]/100)
->setCellValue('B14', '0.6')
->setCellValue('B12', '0');
$letra = 'C';
foreach($propuestas->result_array() as $row) {
$excel2->getActiveSheet()->setCellValue($letra.'11', $row["nombre"])
->setCellValue($letra.'13', $row["variable"]/100)
->setCellValue($letra.'14', '0.6')
->setCellValue($letra.'12', '0')
->setCellValue($letra.'16', '=C$8*'.$letra.'12+C$9*'.$letra.'13+C$8*'.$letra.'14')
->setCellValue($letra.'17','=(B$16-'.$letra.'16)*13')
->setCellValue($letra.'18','=1-('.$letra.'16/B16)');
++$letra;
}
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($excel2, 'Excel2007');
$nombreArchivo = 'CuadroComparativo-'.$cotizacion["empresa_nombre"].'.xlsx';
$objWriter->save('uploads/'.$nombreArchivo);
$fileContents = file_get_contents('http://rpm.singleton.com.ar/uploads/'.$nombreArchivo);
//print_r($fileContents);
$this->load->helper('download');
force_download($nombreArchivo, $fileContents);
}
The response and preview from inspecting the browser are unreadable.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Set the MIME type for the data you're sending in the force_download() function. The browser may be either trying to best guess it, or just outputting exactly what you send it (which may be the 'unreadable' data you're referring to).
Try changing your force_download line to:
force_download($nombreArchivo, $fileContents, TRUE);
This will set the MIME type based on your file extension (xlsx), with should force the browser to download the file.

Answer 2

I solved it by adding in the success function of ajax the following:
success: function(json) {
var content = JSON.parse(json);
//alert(content);
if (content.error) {
$('#error').html(content.response);
$('#error').show();
$('#success').hide();
} else {
// alert(content);
location.href="http://rpm.singleton.com.ar/uploads/"+content.response;
//location.href = "<?php echo site_url('administrador'); ?>/" + content.response;
}
},
And in the php i echo the file name.

Answer 3

Try this code:
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel');
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename={$nombreArchivo}.xls");
$this -> load -> view ('view_file',$fileContents);