PHP Excel file downloaded via browser not opened by MS-Excel/OpenOffice - php

Question

PHPExcel's simple exmple is correctly working for me on my local machine setup. It is downloading .xlsx file and MS-Excel program happly opens it.
Now I copied this code to my WordPress plugin to allow Excel download from WordPress Admin section
if ( file_exists(CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . '/lib/PHPExcel.php') ) {
ob_end_clean();
ob_start();
/** Include PHPExcel */
require (CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . "/lib/PHPExcel.php");
require (CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . "/lib/PHPExcel/Writer/Excel2007.php");
// Create new PHPExcel object
$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
// Set document properties
$objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
->setTitle("PHPExcel Test Document")
->setSubject("PHPExcel Test Document")
->setDescription("Test document for PHPExcel, generated using PHP classes.")
->setKeywords("office PHPExcel php")
->setCategory("Test result file");
// Add some data
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('B2', 'world!')
->setCellValue('C1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('D2', 'world!');
// Miscellaneous glyphs, UTF-8
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A4', 'Miscellaneous glyphs')
->setCellValue('A5', 'éàèùâêîôûëïüÿäöüç');
// 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);
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="myfile.xlsx"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
// Save Excel 2007 file
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
//$objWriter->save("/home/user/ExcelTests/test01.xlsx");
$objWriter->save('php://output');
exit;
}
?>
<div class="wrap">
....
But the file downloaded can not be opened by the excel, it says Different format than specified by the file extension.... and when opened shows bunch of hexa chars
PKU~AG�D�X�[Content_Types].xml��MN�0��"�%nY ��vAa �(0��ؖg�w{&i�#�nbE�{��y��d۸l m�����X�(���)���F��;#1_�����c)j�x/%��E��y� �QĿi!��K�
When I changed the code to save it as a file in hard disk, it can be opened without any issues.
if ( file_exists(CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . '/lib/PHPExcel.php') ) {
ob_end_clean();
ob_start();
/** Include PHPExcel */
require (CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . "/lib/PHPExcel.php");
require (CHECKIN_PLUGIN_DIR . "/lib/PHPExcel/Writer/Excel2007.php");
// Create new PHPExcel object
$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
// Set document properties
$objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
->setTitle("PHPExcel Test Document")
->setSubject("PHPExcel Test Document")
->setDescription("Test document for PHPExcel, generated using PHP classes.")
->setKeywords("office PHPExcel php")
->setCategory("Test result file");
// Add some data
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('B2', 'world!')
->setCellValue('C1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('D2', 'world!');
// Miscellaneous glyphs, UTF-8
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A4', 'Miscellaneous glyphs')
->setCellValue('A5', 'éàèùâêîôûëïüÿäöüç');
// 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);
/*
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="myfile.xlsx"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
*/
// Save Excel 2007 file
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
$objWriter->save("/home/user/ExcelTests/test01.xlsx");
//$objWriter->save('php://output');
exit;
}
?>
<div class="wrap">
....
Same happend for Excel5 format too.
But the CSV downloaded via browser has no issues.
Any help?
Update
File downloaded vi browser is here
File saved to filesyestem is here
Found an additional line feed char 0A before PK in downloaded file when viewed in Hexa editor
I tried to remove that line feed using trim
// Set active sheet index to the first sheet, so Excel opens this as the first sheet
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
ob_end_clean();
ob_start();
// Save Excel 2007 file
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
$objWriter->save('php://output');
$ob_content = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="export.xlsx"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
echo trim($ob_content);
exit;
But even after that 0A is there at the start of file.

Answer 1

This almost certainly means that you're outputting something additional to the content of the xls file, such as white spaces or a BOM header. Open the file in a text editor, and look for any whitespace characters such as tabs, spaces, new lines, etc at the very beginning (before the PK characters) or end of the file, or for any obvious PHP error messages in the file itself.

Answer 2

I use this code on my project and this works well:
$objWriter = new PHPExcel_Writer_Excel2007($objPHPExcel);
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="' . $filename . '.xlsx"');
$objWriter->save('php://output');