Creating Ms Word Document using CodeIgniter and PHPWord

Posted by admin on Jul 20, 2012 in Featured Articles, php | 15 comments

One of my reader – Don Lafferty – told us that integrating PHPWord into CodeIgniter is also as easy as integrating PHPExcel into CodeIgniter. So, I decided to give it a try and it really does so simple.

What is PHPWord? From github:

PHPWord is a library written in PHP that create word documents. No Windows operating system is needed for usage because the result are docx files (Office Open XML) that can be opened by all major office software.

Notes: As I write this, PHPWord can create .docx, .rtf and .odt file.

Without more a do, go download the required package

Download CodeIgniter Download PHPWord

Extract PHPWord (only extract PHPWord.php and PHPWord folder) into your CodeIgniter’s application/third_party

Only extract those two

Your application/third_party will look like this

Your new third_party folder after adding PHPWord

Now, create a new library inside your CodeIgniter’s application/libraries. Let’s call it Word.php. Here’s the full source:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
 
require_once APPPATH."/third_party/PHPWord.php"; 
 
class Word extends PHPWord { 
    public function __construct() { 
        parent::__construct(); 
    } 
}

OK, it’s done.

Now we can call and use the Word library from within your controllers (examples are taken from PHPWord with minimal change):

Call/load the library and create new section (needed)

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$this->load->library('word');
//our docx will have 'lanscape' paper orientation
$section = $this->word->createSection(array('orientation'=>'landscape'));

Adding some text and style it!

// Add text elements
$section->addText('Hello World!');
$section->addTextBreak(1);
 
$section->addText('I am inline styled.', array('name'=>'Verdana', 'color'=>'006699'));
$section->addTextBreak(1);
 
$this->word->addFontStyle('rStyle', array('bold'=>true, 'italic'=>true, 'size'=>16));
$this->word->addParagraphStyle('pStyle', array('align'=>'center', 'spaceAfter'=>100));
$section->addText('I am styled by two style definitions.', 'rStyle', 'pStyle');
$section->addText('I have only a paragraph style definition.', null, 'pStyle');

Adding some images! Watchout on how I add new image, don’t use base_url or site_url, PHPWord only take an absolute path to your server (it also means that you can’t insert image that isn’t hosted on your server)

// Add image elements
$section->addImage(FCPATH.'/image/_mars.jpg');
$section->addTextBreak(1);
 
$section->addImage(FCPATH.'/image/_earth.JPG', array('width'=>210, 'height'=>210, 'align'=>'center'));
$section->addTextBreak(1);
 
$section->addImage(FCPATH.'/image/_mars.jpg', array('width'=>100, 'height'=>100, 'align'=>'right'));

Create a table and give some style

// Define table style arrays
$styleTable = array('borderSize'=>6, 'borderColor'=>'006699', 'cellMargin'=>80);
$styleFirstRow = array('borderBottomSize'=>18, 'borderBottomColor'=>'0000FF', 'bgColor'=>'66BBFF');
 
// Define cell style arrays
$styleCell = array('valign'=>'center');
$styleCellBTLR = array('valign'=>'center', 'textDirection'=>PHPWord_Style_Cell::TEXT_DIR_BTLR);
 
// Define font style for first row
$fontStyle = array('bold'=>true, 'align'=>'center');
 
// Add table style
$this->word->addTableStyle('myOwnTableStyle', $styleTable, $styleFirstRow);
 
// Add table
$table = $section->addTable('myOwnTableStyle');
 
// Add row
$table->addRow(900);
 
// Add cells
$table->addCell(2000, $styleCell)->addText('Row 1', $fontStyle);
$table->addCell(2000, $styleCell)->addText('Row 2', $fontStyle);
$table->addCell(2000, $styleCell)->addText('Row 3', $fontStyle);
$table->addCell(2000, $styleCell)->addText('Row 4', $fontStyle);
$table->addCell(500, $styleCellBTLR)->addText('Row 5', $fontStyle);
 
// Add more rows / cells
for($i = 1; $i <= 2; $i++) {
	$table->addRow();
	$table->addCell(2000)->addText("Cell $i");
	$table->addCell(2000)->addText("Cell $i");
	$table->addCell(2000)->addText("Cell $i");
	$table->addCell(2000)->addText("Cell $i");
 
	$text = ($i % 2 == 0) ? 'X' : '';
	$table->addCell(500)->addText($text);
}

Lastly, give the Ms Word document as .docx file to users without saving it to server’s hard-disk.

$filename='just_some_random_name.docx'; //save our document as this file name
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document'); //mime type
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="'.$filename.'"'); //tell browser what's the file name
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0'); //no cache
 
$objWriter = PHPWord_IOFactory::createWriter($this->word, 'Word2007');
$objWriter->save('php://output');

Example result (opened using Ms Word 2007 and zoomed 50%)

This is what our code generate. CodeIgniter + PHPWord = MS Word 2007 document

Now our CodeIgniter become more complete, we can create Excel file, create a PDF file and, in this tutorial, creating Microsoft Word 2007 document!

15 Responses to “Creating Ms Word Document using CodeIgniter and PHPWord”

mohamed laouane says:

2012/07/20 at 08:35

well done , greats

Reply
Don Lafferty says:

2012/07/20 at 09:08

Yes, it was that easy. I didn’t try PHPPowerPoint but maybe you could give it a shot. I bet it’s just as easy.

Thanks for making these posts. It shows just how powerful CI is.

Reply
mirza says:

2012/12/03 at 14:05

mas, kalau ada 25 kotak html, masing2 di harus isi dengan text yang beraturan ke 25 kotak tersebut, caranya ngisi enak lewat 1 form khusus isi 25 textedit kebawah dan 1x submit ? atau dari 25 kotak di klik 1x, isi text, save by modal window (jquery)sampe 25x ulang ?, mending mana dan nyaman mana ? thanks

Reply
- admin says:
  
  2012/12/03 at 14:11
  
  kalau sudah diniatkan pakai jQuery, lebih baik diletakkan di satu form dan 1x submit saja.
  Karena isiannya kelihatannya banyak (25 buah), mending dibikin tabular atau accordion (jquery ui).
  
  Reply
  - mirza says:
    
    2012/12/03 at 14:18
    
    kalau kotaknya (text item-nya) di klik sebanyak 25x perulangan (5×5), baru klik tombol save …kurang nyaman ya ?
    
    Reply
    - admin says:
      
      2012/12/03 at 14:20
      
      capek nge-klik nya..
      klo mau model begitu, user harus diaksih tau, dia harus ngeklik berapa kali lagi, biar ndak merasa putus asa ngisi form nya
      
      Reply
      - mirza says:
        
        2012/12/03 at 14:27
        
        ok mas, iya sih, (klik 1x , isi text, klik lagi utk save text di kotak tsb sampe 25 kotak terisi dan klik submit …kayane enak model form biasa menurun ke bawah tinggal di atur biar ndak keliatan ruwet
        
        thanks mas
Erdem says:

2012/12/18 at 22:13

how can we save it on our server ?

Reply
- admin says:
  
  2012/12/19 at 04:36
  
  so, instead of
  $objWriter->save('php://output');
  you should do:
  $objWriter->save('/where/you/want/to/save/your/file/'.$filename);
  Reply
desy says:

2013/01/08 at 15:38

makasih, sukses nyoba semua tutorialnya di phpword kecuali untuk templatenya.
yang ini:
loadTemplate(‘Template.docx’);

$document->setValue(‘Value1′, ‘Sun’);
$document->setValue(‘Value2′, ‘Mercury’);
$document->setValue(‘Value3′, ‘Venus’);
$document->setValue(‘Value4′, ‘Earth’);
$document->setValue(‘Value5′, ‘Mars’);
$document->setValue(‘Value6′, ‘Jupiter’);
$document->setValue(‘Value7′, ‘Saturn’);
$document->setValue(‘Value8′, ‘Uranus’);
$document->setValue(‘Value9′, ‘Neptun’);
$document->setValue(‘Value10′, ‘Pluto’);

$document->setValue(‘weekday’, date(‘l’));
$document->setValue(‘time’, date(‘H:i’));

$document->save(‘Solarsystem.docx’);
?>

kenapa error terus di setValuenya?

Reply
maan81 says:

2013/01/14 at 12:13

Thank you for the nice library. I was using a UTF-8 (unicode) fonts for the text which is to be generated in the word file.

How do I do it ?

Reply
maan81 says:

2013/01/14 at 12:34

Additionally how to set the format by the html tags ?

Reply
Tri Pamungkas says:

2013/01/28 at 11:49

can you help me? i have tried implement ‘Template’ example file to CI, the idea is saving to client (not saving to server), but it didn’t work as expected

here is the code

class php_word_controller extends CI_Controller {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
$this->load->library(‘word’);
}
function index() {
$templatefile = FCPATH.’assets/Template.docx’;
$PHPWord = $this->word;
$section = $PHPWord->loadTemplate($templatefile);
$section->setValue(‘Value1′,’Sun’);
$section->setValue(‘Value2′,’Mercury’);
$section->setValue(‘Value3′,’Venus’);
$section->setValue(‘Value4′,’Earth’);
$section->setValue(‘Value5′,’Mars’);
$section->setValue(‘Value6′,’Jupiter’);
$section->setValue(‘Value7′,’Saturn’);
$section->setValue(‘Value8′,’Uranus’);
$section->setValue(‘Value9′,’Neptun’);
$section->setValue(‘Value10′,’Pluto’);
$section->setValue(‘weekday’,date(‘l’));
$section->setValue(‘time’,date(‘H:i’));
$fname=”Test-Template-PHPWORD.docx”;
header(‘Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document’); // mime type
header(‘Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=”‘.$fname.’”‘); // tell browser what’s the file name
header(‘Cache-Control: max-age=0′); // no cache
$objWriter = PHPWord_IOFactory::createWriter($PHPWord,’Word2007′);
$objWriter->save(‘php://output’);
}
}

Reply
drackcyber says:

2013/01/28 at 13:12

mas gimana caranya load hasilnya ke view.. baru pelajari nie..

Reply
liliangrong li says:

2013/02/01 at 20:53

I’m sorry to disturb you,how to generate html file to word?

is there anything method or material?

Look forward to your reply! thanks!

Reply