PHPExcel can't save the file or download it - php

Question

I'm trying to code a function in PHP to export some data to Excel file.
The problem is if I save it to the server it does work, but if I try to send to the browser using php://output it just doesn't work. It doesn't even show the download window. I' ve been getting these as response:
PK����a�B%���a��������[Content_Types].xml͔]K�0���%��f�
"�v��R���kX����׿�m��+����4�<�'��2�jgs6�,+��v����Sz���a�����tr5^�=Bb�9+c����,��9��.T"�kXr/�J,���[.��`ck6�?h�\��,���ܠ}3�c�C+��9�-E��|c�j�BKPN�+�d��u��O1�
o��Ba +���G�
The headers are:
Response Headers
Cache-Control no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Connection Keep-Alive
Content-Disposition attachment;filename="Report.xlsx"
Content-Type application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Date Wed, 29 May 2013 10:08:10 GMT
Expires Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Keep-Alive timeout=15, max=78
Last-Modified Wed, 29 May 2013 10:08:11 GMT
Pragma no-cache
Server Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
Transfer-Encoding chunked
X-Powered-By PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.19
Request Headers
Accept */*
Accept-Encoding gzip, deflate
Accept-Language en-US,en;q=0.5
Cookie PHPSESSID=075r4aaqrvcnbca5sshjvm0jq7; 87293ba76812d31889be0901b086dd73=5h4jriq5c7r9vdt3m2u2u9up43; d82d00149fafbe651c9ba75a9804bbc9=en-GB
Host 150.145.139.3:8889
Referer
User-Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
X-Requested-With XMLHttpRequest
Here's my code:
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', TRUE);
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Rome');
require_once 'Classes/PHPExcel.php';
/** PHPExcel_IOFactory */
include 'Classes/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php';
$target ='templates/';
$fileType = 'Excel2007';
$InputFileName = $target.'richiesta.xlsx';
$OutputFileName = $target .'Richiesta_'.$_SESSION['User'].'_'.$_SESSION['Last'].'_'.$dat.'.xlsx';
//Read the file (including chart template)
$objReader = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createReader($fileType);
//$objReader->setIncludeCharts(TRUE);
$objPHPExcel = $objReader->load($InputFileName);
//Change the file
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
// Add data
->setCellValue('C3','10' )
->setCellValue('C4','20' )
->setCellValue('C5','30')
->setCellValue('C5','40' );
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, $fileType);
//$objWriter->save($OutputFileName); //This one WORKS FINE!!!
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="Report.xlsx"');
$objWriter->save('php://output'); //NOT WORKING :-(
$objPHPExcel->disconnectWorksheets();
unset($objPHPExcel);
exit;
I'm getting depressed about this problem once I have to finish the project this week.
I really appreciate any kind of help!

Answer 1

That's just from my code, as a hint, the problem seems to be with the Content-Type HTTP header:
if (strtolower($type) == 'excel2003') {
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($this->excel, 'Excel5');
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="' . $outFileName . '"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
} else {
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($this->excel, 'Excel2007');
header('Content-Type: application/xlsx');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="' . $outFileName . '"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
}

Answer 2

Try using these header() calls:
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/download");;
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=Report.xlsx");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary ");

Answer 3

$writer = IOFactory::createWriter($spreadsheet, 'Xlsx');
$filename = '1111';
ob_end_clean();
header("Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-
officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet");
header('Content-Disposition:attachment;filename="'.$filename.'.xlsx"');
header("Cache-Control: max-age=0");
$writer = IOFactory::createWriter($spreadsheet, 'Xlsx');
$writer->save('php://output');
exit();

Answer 4

I had the same problem, and it seems that a download must be opened in a different tab instead of just downloading in the same tab. Meaning you need to redirect into a new tab before initializing the download.