How do I extract from WordPress database to MS Excel? - php

Question

I am trying to add data into excel file which is extracted from wordpress database, Actually I am trying to export data (tags) from database into excel file. And I write down a code, but when I click on generate button. This generates empty file.
Please guys check what I am doing wrong.
Codes are below:
if (check_admin_referer('tag-export'))
{
$blogname = str_replace(" ", "", get_option('blogname'));
$date = date("m-d-Y");
$xls_file_name = $blogname."-exported-tags-".$date;
$tags = get_terms( 'post_tag' , 'hide_empty=0' );
$count = count($tags);
if ( $count > 0 )
{
echo 'name' . "\t" . 'slug' . "\n";
foreach ( $tags as $tag )
{
echo $tag->name . "\t" . $tag->slug . "\n";
}
}
ob_clean();
echo $xls_file;
header( "Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel" );
header( "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=$xls_file_name.xls" );
exit();
}
The above codes are not writing data into excel file. please check and let me know.

Answer 1

Just based on your existing code:
if (check_admin_referer('tag-export'))
{
$blogname = str_replace(" ", "", get_option('blogname'));
$date = date("m-d-Y");
$xls_file_name = $blogname."-exported-tags-".$date;
$tags = get_terms( 'post_tag' , 'hide_empty=0' );
$count = count($tags);
$xls_file = '';
if ( $count > 0 )
{
$xls_file .= 'name' . "\t" . 'slug' . "\n";
foreach ( $tags as $tag )
{
$xls_file .= $tag->name . "\t" . $tag->slug . "\n";
}
}
ob_clean();
header( "Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel" );
header( "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=$xls_file_name.xls" );
echo $xls_file;
exit();
}

Answer 2

A more general suggestion, not a solution for your coding problem: create an HTML table file from the code and then open it in Excel for conversion. Doing it so you'll have a better understand on what's going on with your code: you can add var_dumps or simply debug it like a normal web page.
Having an html table is also useful because excel works quite well in converting it to XLS files.
After your HTML file works well, then you can apply necessary formatting/header to the code in order to create the xls file from scratch.