$_POST data to phpExcel - php

Question

I am trying to export data from a html table to an excel file using phpExcel. The issue I am having is that I cannot seem to get the data through to it.
I have the following jquery code which runs on a button press to get the data out of the table and post it to the php code.
export data jquery
function storeTblValues()
{
var tableData = new Array();
$('#LogsTable tr').each(function(row, tr)
{
if(row == 0) //Table Headers
{
tableData[row] =
{
"LogDate" : $(tr).find('th:eq(0)').text(),
"LogType" : $(tr).find('th:eq(1)').text(),
"StartTime" : $(tr).find('th:eq(2)').text(),
"FinishTime" : $(tr).find('th:eq(3)').text(),
"Duration" : $(tr).find('th:eq(4)').text()
}
}
else //Table data
{
tableData[row] =
{
"LogDate" : $(tr).find('td:eq(0)').text(),
"LogType" : $(tr).find('td:eq(1)').text(),
"StartTime" : $(tr).find('td:eq(2)').text(),
"FinishTime" : $(tr).find('td:eq(3)').text(),
"Duration" : $(tr).find('td:eq(4)').text(),
}
}
});
return tableData;
}
function exportToExcel()
{
var tableData;
tableData = $.toJSON(storeTblValues());
var tmp = "pTableData=" + tableData;
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: 'create_export_files.php',
data : tmp,
success : function(data)
{
window.location = 'create_export_files.php';
}
});
}
Top bit of the php file receiving the data
Create_export_files.php
$tableData = "";
if (isset($_POST["pTableData"]))
{
$tableData = $_POST["pTableData"];
$tableData = json_decode($tableData, TRUE);
}
else
{
$tableData = "empty";
}
generateExcel($tableData);
function generateExcel($tableData)
{
/** Include PHPExcel */
require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../Classes/PHPExcel.php';
// Create new PHPExcel object
$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
// Add some data
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A1', 'hello')
->setCellValue('B2', 'world!')
->setCellValue('C1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('D2', 'world!');
// Rename worksheet
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setTitle('Simple');
// Set active sheet index to the first sheet, so Excel opens this as the first sheet
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
$filename = 'export '.date('d-m-Y h:i:a').'.xlsx';
// Redirect output to a client’s web browser (Excel2007)
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="'.$filename.'"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
// If you're serving to IE 9, then the following may be needed
header('Cache-Control: max-age=1');
// If you're serving to IE over SSL, then the following may be needed
header ('Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT'); // Date in the past
header ('Last-Modified: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s').' GMT'); // always modified
header ('Cache-Control: cache, must-revalidate'); // HTTP/1.1
header ('Pragma: public'); // HTTP/1.0
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
$objWriter->save('php://output');
}
I always seem to be going into the else part of the statement. Where am I going wrong?
If I remove the isset bit around the pTableData then the file gets created but is corrupted. Opening it in notepad++ I can see it says pTableData is undefined. Is that because the php file gets run again to make the file download?

Answer 1

try this code:
<?php
$str = "<table>
<tr><td>a</td><td>b</td></tr>
<tr><td>a</td><td>b</td></tr>
<tr><td>a</td><td>b</td></tr>
<tr><td>a</td><td>b</td></tr>
</table>
";
file_put_contents("table.xls",$str);