If you’ve ever had the headache of having to export Data from your PHP application into Excel or CSV you know what a mission it can be.
Here’s a library which makes it easier and even allows you to read and parse the files back into your application which can also be handy for things such as address book integration etc.
Another one of the best features is the ability to edit Excel files and return them to the browser. This is especially handy, when there’s custom formatting which is easier applied in Excel, such as mass cell styling, inserting of images, header images, footers etc. You can then simple upload the file to the webserver filesystem and manipulate as needed. I have found that very handy indeed in the past when my clients wanted a particularly styled report to be output in an Excel format and I was able to leverage this functionality and just update the certain cells that were liable to change between the different report criteria.