Generate OpenOffice calc files using PHP

Question

I have been trying to find a simple way to create OpenOffice calc files with no success.

I have tried:

openTBS - Seems to work writing an xml and a template file but can't find anything about how the xml file format.

Ods php generator - I tried this one as it provides clear examples, but when I copy the files to my server I always get corrupted files

Php doc writer - Tried an example and got an sxw file. I don't even know what that is

ODS-PHP - No documentation, only one example for creating 4 cells

Everything looks old, stalled and undocumented. ¿Any suggestion?

Strongly recommend [**PHPExcel**](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PHPExcel), which I believe can read/write OpenOffice too, comes with abundance of Documentation - only downside is, be prepared to increase your PHP `memory_limit` :) — MackieeE, Jan 22 '14 at 17:02
Sadly, PHPExcel doesn't yet write Open/Libre Office Calc files, though it does currently read them.... it's "in the pipeline"; but unless I can get some restoration of work/life balance (or somebody else decides to be extremely generous with their time and effort), it could be quite some while away before it can write .ods files — Mark Baker, Jan 22 '14 at 17:35
@MarkBaker Ah! Apologies to both of you then! To `xzdead` for providing you incorrect information; and to you Mark - I skimmed far too quickly on the Github page! Well, I must say though you've developed some wonderful piece of software that I even use day-to-day within the company I work for! (Thus, a big thank you!) — MackieeE, Jan 23 '14 at 08:38
No problem @MackieeE, thanks for your time. I already tried PHPExcel because I thought the same as you. The solution: generate xls and not ods :o( — Victor, Jan 23 '14 at 17:13

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 26 '14 at 13:59

I have used opentbs successfully.

You can generate both excel and calc files. It also nice that you can "reuse" your html implementation so to speak.

Maybe this thread could get you going http://www.tinybutstrong.com/forum.php?thr=3069

Do the html version first.. then edit for calc/excel

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 08 '20 at 11:55

Spout from Box works well enough for me. There are some missing features but it is simple to use, has a fluent API, and has no dependencies (it supports composer but you can use it standalone and its dependency graph has zero depth ).

Here's my "array of objects to ODS" pipeline, using Spout: (I'm not using their recommended use import because all this code fits in a much larger file that I didn't want to contaminate and the $factory pattern looks cleaner to me anyway)

$factory = 'Box\Spout\Writer\Common\Creator\WriterEntityFactory';
$factory::createODSWriter()
    ->openToBrowser('filename.ods')
    ->addRow($factory::createRow([
        $factory::createCell(__('Heading 1')),
        $factory::createCell(__('Heading 2')),
        $factory::createCell(__('Heading 3')),
    ]))
    ->addRows(array_map(function($row) use ($factory) { 
        return $factory::createRow([
            $factory::createCell($row->first_val),
            $factory::createCell($row->second_val),
            $factory::createCell($row->third_val),
        ]);
    }, loadDataFromSomewhere()))
    ->close();

Generate OpenOffice calc files using PHP

2 Answers2