XML Parsing error; PHPWord - php

Question

I am using PHPOffice/PHPWord in my Laravel Application. It is used to generate a .docx document with results in tables. This works great for a document of 3 tables with 6 rows, but when there are more rows the document is generated but when opening it the following error occurs:
We're sorry, We can't open (documentname) because we found a problem with its contents.
Details: XML parsing error Location: Part:/word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column 14349.
Now, I have started working on another result page where I would also want to generate a .docx document. This will contain 5 tables, but with 3 rows I get the same XML parsing error but in a different location (Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line:4, Column:2888). Could someone explain to me whether this is a error in my code, or phpword/words?
I have done some troubleshooting by deleting everything, and slowly adding new rows. I have found the error but how could i fix it. The first two tables are generated good..
$phpWord = new \PhpOffice\PhpWord\PhpWord();
$section = $phpWord->addSection();
$section->addImage('../public/img/2.jpg', array('width' => 230, 'height' => 65, 'alignment' => 'left'));
$section->addText('Project IDs:' . $parameter);
$header =$section->addHeader();
$header->addText('Results Summary');
$section->addLine(
array(
'width' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(16),
'height' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(0),
'positioning' => 'absolute',
)
);
$tableName = 'rStyle';
$phpWord->addFontStyle($tableName, array('italic' => true, 'size' => 12));
$thName = 'tStyle';
$phpWord->addFontStyle($thName, array('bold' => true, 'size' => 9));
$section->addText('General Information Table', $tableName);
$fancyTableStyle = array('borderSize' => 6, 'borderColor' => '999999');
$spanTableStyleName = 'Overview tables';
$phpWord->addTableStyle($spanTableStyleName, $fancyTableStyle);
$table = $section->addTable($spanTableStyleName);
$table->addRow(null, array('tblHeader' => true, 'cantSplit' => true));
$table->addCell(1750)->addText('Project ID',$thName);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText('Description',$thName);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText('Notes',$thName);
foreach ($id_array_explode as $char) {
$table->addRow();
$singlenumber = (int)$char;
$cursor = $collection->find(array("id" => $singlenumber));
foreach ($cursor as $document) {
$table->addCell(1750)->addText($document["project_id"]);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText($document["description"]);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText($document["notes"]);
}
}
$section->addText('
');
$section->addLine(
array(
'width' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(16),
'height' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(0),
'positioning' => 'absolute',
)
);
$section->addText('Input Table', $tableName);
$table1 = $section->addTable($spanTableStyleName);
$table1->addRow(null, array('tblHeader' => true, 'cantSplit' => true));
$table1->addCell(1750)->addText('Project ID',$thName);
$table1->addCell(1750)->addText('#',$thName);
foreach ($id_array_explode as $char) {
$table1->addRow();
$singlenumber = (int)$char;
$cursor = $collection->find(array("id" => $singlenumber));
foreach ($cursor as $document) {
if (is_array($document['input'])) {
foreach ($document['input'] as $samples) {
$table1->addCell(1750)->addText($document["project_id"]);
$table1->addCell(1750)->addText($samples['nr']);
}
}
}
}
$section->addText('
');
$section->addLine(
array(
'width' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(16),
'height' => \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\Converter::cmToPixel(0),
'positioning' => 'absolute',
)
);
$section->addText('Output Table', $tableName);
$table2 = $section->addTable($spanTableStyleName);
//// THIS IS WHERE THE ERROR OCCURS!!
$table2->addRow(null, array('tblHeader' => true, 'cantSplit' => true));
$table2->addCell(1750)->addText('ID',$thName);
Thank you!
SOLUTION
Oke, so I have deleted the whole document and added every single sentence separately to see where the error occurred. This led to seeing that the error came from the data which I was getting. It couldn't handle ">" and "&" signs!
So, if you every have this error, check the data which you're printing!

Answer 1

A better solution is to add the following line of code before you do anything with the word document:
PhpOffice\PhpWord\Settings::setOutputEscapingEnabled(true);
This will automatically escape any problematic characters.

Answer 2

Indeed, It comes from your data : you have a XML special character in it and when Word, parses your doc, it doesn't understand.
I solved this problem by using htmlspecialchars(). I'm not sure it is the best way but it works.

Answer 3

Not very familiar with PHPWord, but make sure the encoding of your document and the data you are inserting into it are the same. Used to have the same problem with an old library for creating excel files.