, (*1)
CsvView Plugin
Quickly enable CSV output of your model data., (*2)
Background
I needed to quickly export CSVs of stuff in the database. Using a view class to
iterate manually would be a chore to replicate for each export method, so I
figured it would be much easier to do this with a custom view class,
like JsonView or XmlView., (*3)
Requirements
- CakePHP 3.x
- PHP 5.4.16 or greater
- Patience
Installation
[Using Composer], (*4)
composer require kongka/cakephp-csvview:dev-master
Enable plugin
Load the plugin in your app's config/bootstrap.php
file:, (*5)
Plugin::load('CsvView', ['routes' => true]);
Usage
To export a flat array as a CSV, one could write the following code:, (*6)
public function export()
{
$data = [
['a', 'b', 'c'],
[1, 2, 3],
['you', 'and', 'me'],
];
$_serialize = 'data';
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('data', '_serialize'));
}
All variables that are to be included in the csv must be specified in the
$_serialize
view variable, exactly how JsonView or XmlView work., (*7)
It is possible to have multiple variables in the csv output:, (*8)
public function export()
{
$data = [['a', 'b', 'c']];
$data_two = [[1, 2, 3]];
$data_three = [['you', 'and', 'me']];
$_serialize = ['data', 'data_two', 'data_three'];
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('data', 'data_two', 'data_three', '_serialize'));
}
If you want headers or footers in your CSV output, you can specify either a
$_header
or $_footer
view variable. Both are completely optional:, (*9)
public function export()
{
$data = [
['a', 'b', 'c'],
[1, 2, 3],
['you', 'and', 'me'],
];
$_serialize = 'data';
$_header = ['Column 1', 'Column 2', 'Column 3'];
$_footer = ['Totals', '400', '$3000'];
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('data', '_serialize', '_header', '_footer'));
}
You can also specify the delimiter, end of line, newline, escape characters and
byte order mark (BOM) sequence using $_delimiter
, $_eol
, $_newline
,
$_enclosure
and $_bom
respectively:, (*10)
public function export()
{
$data = [
['a', 'b', 'c'],
[1, 2, 3],
['you', 'and', 'me'],
];
$_serialize = 'data';
$_delimiter = chr(9); //tab
$_enclosure = '"';
$_newline = '\r\n';
$_eol = '~';
$_bom = true;
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('data', '_serialize', '_delimiter', '_enclosure', '_newline', '_eol', '_bom'));
}
The defaults for these variables are:, (*11)
-
_delimiter
: ,
-
_enclosure
: "
-
_newline
: \n
-
_eol
: \n
-
_bom
: false
-
_setSeparator
: false
The _eol
variable is the one used to generate newlines in the output.
_newline
, however, is the character that should replace the newline characters
in the actual data. It is recommended to use the string representation of the
newline character to avoid rendering invalid output., (*12)
Some reader software incorrectly renders UTF-8 encoded files which do not
contain byte order mark (BOM) byte sequence. The _bom
variable is the one used
to add byte order mark (BOM) byte sequence beginning of the generated CSV output
stream. See Wikipedia article about byte order mark
for more information., (*13)
The _setSeparator
flag can be used to set the separator explicitly in the
first line of the CSV. Some readers need this in order to display the CSV correctly., (*14)
If you have complex model data, you can use the $_extract
view variable to
specify the individual Hash::extract()
-compatible paths
or a callable for each record:, (*15)
public function export()
{
$posts = $this->Post->find('all');
$_serialize = 'posts';
$_header = ['Post ID', 'Title', 'Created'];
$_extract = [
'id',
function ($row) {
return $row['title'];
},
'created'
];
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('posts', '_serialize', '_header', '_extract'));
}
If your model data contains some null values or missing keys, you can use the
$_null
variable, just like you'd use $_delimiter
, $_eol
, and $_enclosure
,
to set how null values should be displayed in the CSV., (*16)
$_null
defaults to ''
., (*17)
You can use Router::extensions()
and the RequestHandlerComponent
to
automatically have the CsvView class switched in as follows:, (*18)
// In your routes.php file:
Router::extensions('csv');
// In your controller:
public $components = [
'RequestHandler' => [
'viewClassMap' => ['csv' => 'CsvView.Csv']
]
];
public function export()
{
$posts = $this->Post->find('all');
$this->set(compact('post'));
if ($this->request->params['_ext'] === 'csv') {
$_serialize = 'posts';
$_header = array('Post ID', 'Title', 'Created');
$_extract = array('id', 'title', 'created');
$this->set(compact('_serialize', '_header', '_extract'));
}
}
Access /posts/export.csv to get the data as csv and /posts/export to get normal page as usually., (*19)
For really complex CSVs, you can also simply use your own view files.
To do so, either leave $_serialize
unspecified or set it to null.
The view files will be located in the csv
subdirectory of your current controller:, (*20)
// View used will be in src/Template/Posts/csv/export.ctp
public function export()
{
$posts = $this->Post->find('all');
$_serialize = null;
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('posts', '_serialize'));
}
Setting a different encoding to the file
if you need to have a different encoding in you csv file you have to set the encoding of your data
you are passing to the view and also set the encoding you want for the csv file.
This can be done by using _dataEncoding
and _csvEncoding
:, (*21)
The defaults are:, (*22)
-
_dataEncoding
: UTF-8
-
_csvEncoding
: UTF-8
** Only if those two variable are different your data will be converted to another encoding., (*23)
CsvView uses the iconv
extension by default to encode your data. You can change the php
extension used to encode your data by setting the _extension
option:, (*24)
$this->set('_extension', 'mbstring');
The currently supported encoding extensions are as follows:, (*25)
Setting the downloaded file name
By default, the downloaded file will be named after the last segment of the URL
used to generate it. Eg: example.com/my_controller/my_action
would download
my_action.csv
, while example.com/my_controller/my_action/first_param
would
download first_param.csv
., (*26)
In IE you are required to set the filename, otherwise it will download as a text file., (*27)
To set a custom file name, use the Response::download
method.
The following snippet can be used to change the downloaded file from export.csv
to my_file.csv
:, (*28)
public function export()
{
$data = [
['a', 'b', 'c'],
[1, 2, 3],
['you', 'and', 'me'],
];
$_serialize = 'data';
$this->response = $this->response->withDownload('my_file.csv'); // <= setting the file name
$this->viewBuilder()->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
$this->set(compact('data', '_serialize'));
}
Using a specific View Builder
In some cases, it is better not to use the current model's View Builder $this->viewBuilder
as any call to $this->render()
will compromise any subsequent rendering., (*29)
For example, in the course of your current controller's action, if you need to render some data as CSV in order to simply save it into a file on the server., (*30)
Do not forget to add to your controller:, (*31)
use Cake\View\View;
use Cake\View\ViewBuilder;
So you can create a specific View Builder:, (*32)
// Your data array
$data = [];
// Params
$_serialize = 'data';
$_delimiter = ',';
$_enclosure = '"';
$_newline = '\r\n';
// Create the builder
$builder = new ViewBuilder;
$builder->layout = false;
$builder->setClassName('CsvView.Csv');
// Then the view
$view = $builder->build($data);
$view->set(compact('data', '_serialize', '_delimiter', '_enclosure', '_newline'));
// And Save the file
$file = new File('/full/path/to/file.csv', true, 0644);
$file->write($view->render());
License
The MIT License (MIT), (*33)
Copyright (c) 2012 Jose Diaz-Gonzalez, (*34)
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:, (*35)
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software., (*36)
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE., (*37)