HTML to Excel with PHP

HTML to Excel

Introduction

The conversion of HTML into Excel is one of the most requested functionalities of phpxlsx.

phpxlsx supports creating Excel spreadsheets using HTML tags and CSS styles with the addHtml method.

To get the best XLSX output this feature provides, please install and enable PHP Tidy and PHP mbstring extensions on your server.

Examples

The code needed to insert some HTML with styles is as simple as this:

require_once 'classes/CreateXlsx.php';

$xlsx = new CreateXlsx();

$html = '<p>Lorem ipsum</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1');

$html = '<style>
    p {
        font-family: Arial;
        font-style: italic;
        text-decoration: underline;
        color: #2CA87A;
        vertical-align: bottom;
    }
</style>
<p>Lorem ipsum with Arial font</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A3');

$html = '<a href="https://www.phpxlsx.com">Link to phpxlsx</a>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'B5');

$html = '<style>
    p {
        background-color: #AEBF7A;
    }
    .c1 {
        text-decoration: underline;
        font-size: 16pt;
    }
</style>
<p>
    <b>phpxlsx</b> can transform <span class="c1">HTML to XLSX</span>.
</p>
';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A10');

$xlsx->saveXlsx('output');

That generates the following output:

Another example that inserts tables:

require_once 'classes/CreateXlsx.php';

$xlsx = new CreateXlsx();

$html = '
<style>
    .cstable2 {
        data-style: TableStyleMedium2;
    }
    tr.rowstyles {
        font-family: Arial;
        font-weight: bold;
        text-decoration: underline;
        color: #2CA87A;
    }
</style>
<table class="cstable2">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td style="background-color: yellow;">Cell 1 1</td>
            <td>Cell 1 2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Cell 2 1</td>
            <td></td>
        </tr>
        <tr class="rowstyles">
            <td><em>Cell</em> 3 1</td>
            <td><em>Cell</em> 3 2</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>Paragraph after table.</p>
';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'B3');

// table with th tags, that are added as table headers
$html = '
<style>
    tr.rowstyles {
        font-family: Arial;
        font-weight: bold;
        text-decoration: underline;
        color: #2CA87A;
    }
</style>
<table>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <th>Col A</th>
            <th>Col B</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Cell 2 1</td>
            <td>Cell 2 2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr class="rowstyles">
            <td><em>Cell</em> 3 1</td>
            <td><em>Cell</em> 3 2</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'G3');

$xlsx->saveXlsx('output');

That generates the following output:

Supported HTML tags, attributes and styles

a tags. A link is added as block content and fills a cell position due to XLSX requirements
- see text element styles
p, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 tags
- background-color
- border: color, width
- dir: ltr, rtl
- text-align: left, center, right
- vertical-align: top, center, bottom
span, b, cite, em, i, s, strong, sub, sup, var tags
- see text element styles
table, tr, td, th tags
- background-color
- dir: ltr, rtl
- text-align: left, center, right
- vertical-align: top, center, bottom
th tags are added as column names.
text element styles
- color
- font-family
- font-size
- font-style: italic, oblique
- font-weight: bold, bolder, 700, 800, 900
- text-decoration: line-through, underline
- vertical-align: sub, sup

CSS variables

phpxlsx supports CSS variables by enabling the parseCSSVars option.

The following sample transforms HTML contents with CSS variables:

$html = '<style>
:root {
    --blue: #1990fa;
    font-weight: bold;
}
.varcolor {
    color: var(--blue);
}
.color {
    color: green;
}
</style>
<p class="varcolor">Text with blue color using a CSS variable.</p>
<p class="color">Text with a custom color.</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A3', array('parseCSSVars' => true));

HTML Extended and CSS Extended

Premium licenses include HTML Extended and CSS Extended modes to invoke phpxlsx methods with custom HTML tags and apply custom styles not supported by standard HTML tags and CSS styles.

Thus, it is possible to insert sheets, breaks, and other contents and styles. All of it integrated with the supported HTML tags and CSS styles.

The following sample illustrates the use of HTML Extended and CSS Extended:

require_once 'classes/CreateXlsx.php';

$xlsx = new CreateXlsx();

$html = '<p>Lorem ipsum</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1');

$html = '<style>
    p {
        font-family: Arial;
        font-style: italic;
        text-decoration: underline;
        color: #2CA87A;
        vertical-align: bottom;
    }
</style>
<p>Lorem ipsum with Arial font</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A3');

$html = '<p>Lorem ipsum L12</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'L12');

// add a break
$html = '<phpxlsx_break data-type="col" data-position="2" />';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1', array('useHTMLExtended' => true)); // a position is set although it is not used with phpxlsx_break

// add an image
$html = '<phpxlsx_image data-src="https://www.phpdocx.com/img/logo_badge.png" data-colSize="4" data-rowSize="5" />';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'D6', array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

// add a sheet
$html = '<phpxlsx_sheet data-active="true" data-name="My Sheet" data-removeSelected="true" data-selected="true" />';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1', array('useHTMLExtended' => true)); // a position is set although it is not used with phpxlsx_sheet

$html = '<p>Lorem ipsum A1</p>';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1');

// add an image
$html = '<phpxlsx_image data-src="image.png" data-colSize="4" data-rowSize="8" data-position="C7" />'; // data-position overrides the position set in addHtml
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'B6', array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

// add an SVG
$html = '<phpxlsx_svg data-src="image.svg" data-colSize="4" data-rowSize="8" data-position="J10" />'; // data-position overrides the position set in addHtml
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'J10', array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

// add multiple HTML contents in a new sheet
$html = '
<style>
    #i1 {
        font-size: 18px;
    }
    .c1 {
        text-decoration: underline;
    }
    .c2 {
        color: #2CA87A;
    }
</style>
<phpxlsx_sheet data-active="true" data-name="My Sheet 2" />
<p>
    <p>
        <b>phpxlsx</b> can transform <span class="c1">HTML to XLSX</span>.
    </p>
    <p id="i1" class="c2">
        <span class="c1">CSS styles</span> using ids and classes are supported.
    </p>
    <p class="c2">
        CSS styles classes are supported.
    </p>
</p>
<p>Links can be added:</p>
<a href="https://www.phpxlsx.com">Link</a>
<phpxlsx_image data-src="image.png" data-colSize="4" data-rowSize="8" data-position="C7">
';
$xlsx->addHtml($html, 'A1', array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

$xlsx->saveXlsx('output');