Download a file with an ajax call

Question

I am using PHPExcel to read an excel template, populate the data, and ask the user to download the file.

generate_excel.php

$objPHPExcel = PHPExcel_I         


        

Answer 1

I looked for ways to pass JSON data with ajax to PHP and return an excel file (MySQL and PHPExcel) for the user to save. I looked around and put some pieces together, hope it can help someone:

jQuery:

$("#exportBotton").on("click",function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
// create json object;
str_json = JSON.stringify({"key01":val01, "key02":val02, "key03":val03});
        $.ajax({
              type: "post",
              data: str_json,
              url: "../../includes/dbSelect_agentFormExport.php",
              dataType: "json",
              success: function(output){
                          // output returned value from PHP t
              document.location.href =(output.url);
            }
       });
});

PHP:

 $str_json = file_get_contents('php://input');
 $objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
 // here i populated objPHPExcel with mysql query result.....

 function saveExcelToLocalFile($objWriter){
    // make sure you have permission to write to directory
    $filePath = '../tmp/saved_File.xlsx';
    $objWriter->save($filePath);
    return $filePath;
}

 $objWriter = new PHPExcel_Writer_Excel2007($objPHPExcel);
 $response = array(
     'success' => true,
     'url' => saveExcelToLocalFile($objWriter)
 );
 echo json_encode($response);
 exit();