How to Export Data in an Excel File in Laravel 9?

Last updated on March 6, 2023

You can export data to an excel file through maatwebsite/excel package in the Laravel Framework. This well-reputed package is created by Patrick Brouwers which imports and exports data to excel files. It has 52.53 million downloads at the time of writing this article which proves it is one of the best packages and the Laravel community loved it.

Requirements:

Before installing maatwebsite/excel package, make sure your web server meets the following requirements:

PHP: ^7.2 OR ^8.0
Laravel Version: ^5.8
PhpSpreadsheet: ^1.21
psr/simple-cache: ^1.0
PHP extension php_zip enabled
PHP extension php_xml enabled
PHP extension php_gd2 enabled
PHP extension php_iconv enabled
PHP extension php_simplexml enabled
PHP extension php_xmlreader enabled
PHP extension php_zlib enabled

Installations:

To install the maatwebsite/excel package, run the below composer command in the terminal.

composer require maatwebsite/excel

It takes a few seconds to install the package in the Laravel application. In the next step register the excel service provide, so open config/app.php and add the below class into the providers array,

Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider::class,

After this, the facade also needs to be added to the same file. So add the below Facade in the aliases array,

'Excel' => Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel::class,

The next and last part of the installation is to publish the vendors. Run the below command to do it,

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider" --tag=config

Now we have completed the installation steps, next, let’s export data into an excel file.

Export Data to Excel File

If you install this Laravel package on a fresh application then you need some data in the users table to export. You can generate dummy data through the Laravel factory.

To export data, maatwebsite/excel package wants us to run the below command that creates a class and directory in the app folder

php artisan make:export UsersExport --model=User

The above command creates UsersExport class with a collection method that returns all users through the eloquent all() method.

namespace App\Exports;

use App\Models\User;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection;

class UsersExport implements FromCollection
{
    /**
    * @return \Illuminate\Support\Collection
    */
    public function collection()
    {
        return User::all();
    }
}

Next, create UserController and import the excel facade and UsersExport class. Then create exportUsersWithExcel() method in the UserController and use download() method from the excel facade.

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Exports\UsersExport;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function exportUsersWithExcel() 
    {
        return Excel::download(new UsersExport, 'users-data.xlsx');
    }
}

Next, create a route in the routes/web.php to run exportUsersWithExcel() method that exports and downloads users data with an excel file.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;


Route::get('/export-users-with-excel', [UserController::class, 'exportUsersWithExcel']);

Now let’s test it, run the below command that serves the application on the development server and provides URL to access

php artisan serve

Then open the browser and open the below URL

http://127.0.0.1:8000/export-users-with-excel

When you open it, it will export users’ data into an excel file and download it.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to install an excel package in a Laravel application and export data in an excel file. If you want to learn more about it, check out our Laravel page.

Written by

Ayaz Ali Shah

I am a skilled full-stack developer with extensive experience in creating and deploying large and small-scale applications. My expertise spans front-end and back-end technologies, along with database management and server-side programming.

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Tags: Laravel,