Laravel-Excel: Error Opening file with Excel. Possible data corrupted or bad file extension.

Prerequisites

[ x] Able to reproduce the behaviour outside of your code, the problem is isolated to Laravel Excel.
[x ] Checked that your issue isn’t already filed.
[ x] Checked if no PR was submitted that fixes this problem.

Versions

PHP version: 7.1
Laravel version: 5.5.*
Package version: ^3.0

Description

Downloading file from a FromQuery method… file downloads, upon opening XLSX file, receive an error message from Office: “Excel cannot open the file <filename.xlxs> because the file format or the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file”

Steps to Reproduce

Here is my method

namespace Modules\Profile\Exports;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Exportable;
use Modules\Profile\Entities\Profile;

class ProfileExport implements FromQuery
{
    use Exportable;

    public function __construct($range)
    {
        $this->start = $range['start'];
        $this->end = $range['end'];
    }

    public function query()
    {
      return Profile::query()->where('created_at', '>=', $this->start . ' 00:00:00')
                             ->where('created_at', '<=', $this->end . ' 23:59:59')
                             ->whereHas('user.roles', function($query){
                                  $query->where('id', 2);
                             });
    }
}

I call it like this from a controller

//$request->start = '2018-01-01';
//$request->end = '2018-05-01';

$range = ['start'=>$request->start, 'end'=>$request->end];
return (new ProfileExport($range))->download($request->start . '-' . $request->end .'-pet-parent-signups.xlsx');

Expected behavior:

The file to be downloaded with data

Actual behavior:

The file downloads but Excel gives error opening it

Additional Information

I have tested the query in eloquent and it returns a collection with data.

(https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/18451450/40511758-f61e6570-5f5d-11e8-9f37-0b594f60be59.png)

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 6 years ago
Comments: 25 (1 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :

// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');

solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

+159

Leenzuur on May 20, 2019

Hi everyone,

This solution :

ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');

Works and solve the corrupt problem. But still have trouble with export using Xlsx/Xls. The downloaded file looks like this :

Any idea how to fix this ?

Thx !

+16

SwithFr on Dec 4, 2019

If you are using ajax to download, please add responseType: 'blob' to your ajax request (I’m using axios)

My example code:

axios.post('/path/to/export', data, {
    responseType: 'blob',
})
.then(response => {
    const filename = 'file.xlsx';
    let blob = new Blob([response.data], {
        type: 'application/octet-stream',
    });

    if (typeof window.navigator.msSaveBlob !== 'undefined') {
        // IE workaround for "HTML7007: One or more blob URLs were
        // revoked by closing the blob for which they were created.
        // These URLs will no longer resolve as the data backing
        // the URL has been freed."
        window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
    } else {
        let blobURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        let tempLink = document.createElement('a');
        tempLink.style.display = 'none';
        tempLink.href = blobURL;
        tempLink.download = filename;
        tempLink.click();
        window.URL.revokeObjectURL(blobURL);
    }
})

Without responseType: 'blob', the downloaded file can not be open

+15

ductv-vega on Jun 26, 2020

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :
// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');
solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

THanks alot its perfect answer

sanjaysamant on May 24, 2019

u can open error file with nano or vim. If you see a space before PK,just like this ： Maybe error happened in your code or vendor. I met the same problem and deal with remove vendor folder . It works well After reinstall the vendor

dark-wind on May 28, 2018

@Ribbon-Brooke Sorry don’t remember and I don’t have project sources anymore 😕

SwithFr on Feb 6, 2024

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :
// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');
solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

Thanks! I used on namespace Maatwebsite\Excel;

Solved all my download actions.

dev-abrascort on Oct 20, 2022

i met same issue. i fixed by

Excel::store to store file on server
return redirect( Storage::url(“storage/{$filename}” )); sample

public function export(Request $request)
    {

        $filename = 'meal_list_'.date('YmdHis').'.xlsx';
         Excel::store(new MealExport($request), $filename, 'public');
         return redirect( Storage::url("storage/{$filename}" ));
    }

PhamLinh0889 on Jan 8, 2019

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :
// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');
solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

This solves all my problems. Also, if you cant install PHP spreadsheet and composer because it needs all the things u don’t know, try adding --ignore-platform-reqs in your composer require/update

Mikeonii on Mar 21, 2022

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :
// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');
solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

This worked for me … thanks ❤️

ibnfarouk on Jun 25, 2021

This problem started to happen to me today with no change to any export. Using @leenzuur code sample fixed it after hours of research.

Naghal on Nov 13, 2020

Hi everyone,

I spend my day to understand this unworkable download function. PHPSpreadSheet seems to use PHP buffer. And depending on your PHP configuration some warnings or errors could interfer with the output.

Using :
// in controller
ob_end_clean(); // this
ob_start(); // and this
return Excel::download(new MyExport, 'file.xls');
solves for me. Maybe it should help some people.

Thank you for this awesome library.

Thanks @Leenzuur , you saved my day! It worked! I wonder is there any any to fix this but @Leenzuur way, you know what’s I mean, if I have 10 Export class for 10 Model, when download, I have to add in 10 places.

VuongTran21 on Sep 24, 2020

I’m not sure if it’s still the same problem with PhpSpreadsheet, but PHPExcel had problems with having spaces ( ) in front of <?php open tags. That used to cause this error in the past.

patrickbrouwers on May 28, 2018