This is a mini-howto to add a simple “export to csv” feature, so you can control your tasks and projects inside excel, or build reports of what you’ve done for a group of projects.

All the filters apply before the CSV file is created.

Note: The link to build the CSV is located at the bottom of the Tasks table.

Step by step tutorial:

• Download this helper code. Note: the original code was posted by Adam Royle here i’m just copying his code for PHP 4 & 5:

<?php/*** CSV helper for cakePHP. Compatible with version 1.1.x.x and higher.*

* PHP versions 4 and 5

*

* Licensed under The MIT License

*

* @copyright		Adam Royle

* @license			http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php The MIT License

*/

class CsvHelper extends Helper {	var $delimiter = ',';

var $enclosure = '"';

var $filename = null;

var $line = array();

var $buffer;

/**

* This option preserves leading zeros on numeric data when opened in Excel.

* Use it ONLY when the csv file is going to be opened in Excel, as it uses

* non-standard syntax, and will probably break in other systems.

*/

var $preserveLeadingZerosInExcel = false;

var $_tmpFile = false;

function CsvHelper() {

$this->clear();

}

/**

* Adds a multi-dimensional array to the buffer.

*

* @param array $data Multi-dimensional array

* @param boolean $addFieldNames Add a row of field names before adding data

* @access public

*/

function addGrid($data, $addFieldNames = true, $fieldList = null) {

if (!$data) {

return false;

}

if (@is_array(reset($row = reset($data)))) {

// Array generated by cakePHP model

// eg.

// $data = array(array('Model' => array('field_name' => 'field value')), array('Model' => array('field_name' => 'field value')))

$defaultModel = key($row);

if ($this->filename === null) {

$this->setFilename(Inflector::pluralize($defaultModel));

}

if ($fieldList) {

$fields = array();

foreach ($fieldList as $fieldName) {

if (strpos($fieldName, '.')) {

list($modelName, $fieldName) = explode('.', $fieldName);

} else {

$modelName = $defaultModel;

}

$fields[] = array(Inflector::humanize($modelName), $fieldName);

}

if ($addFieldNames){

foreach ($fields as $field) {

if ($field[0] != $defaultModel) {

$this->addField($field[0].' '.Inflector::humanize($field[1]));

} else {

$this->addField(Inflector::humanize($field[1]));

}

}

$this->endRow();

}

foreach ($data as $row) {

foreach ($fields as $field) {

@$this->addField($row[$field[0]][$field[1]]);

}

$this->endRow();

}

} else {

if ($addFieldNames){

foreach (reset($row) as $key => $value) {

$this->addField(Inflector::humanize($key));

}

$this->endRow();

}

foreach ($data as $row) {

$this->addRow($row[$defaultModel]);

}

}

} else {

// Regular 2-dimensional array (with or without keys).

// eg.

//			$data = array(array('field_name' => 'field_value'), array('field_name' => 'field_value'))

//	or

//			$data = array(array('field value'), array('field value'))

if ($fieldList) {

if ($addFieldNames){

foreach ($fieldList as $fieldName) {

$this->addField(Inflector::humanize($fieldName));

}

$this->endRow();

}

foreach ($data as $row) {

foreach ($fieldList as $fieldName) {

@$this->addField($row[$fieldName]);

}

$this->endRow();

}

} else {

if ($addFieldNames) {

foreach (reset($data) as $key => $value) {

$this->addField(Inflector::humanize($key));

}

$this->endRow();

}

foreach ($data as $row) {

$this->addRow($row);

}

}

}

}

/**

* Adds a single field value to the buffer. You must call $csv->endRow() to commit fields to the buffer.

*

* @param string $value Field value

* @access public

*/

function addField($value) {

$this->line[] = $value;

}

/**

* Commits the row of fields that were added by addField()

*

* @access public

*/

function endRow() {

$this->addRow($this->line);

$this->line = array();

}

/**

* Adds a single row to the buffer.

*

* @param array $row Data to be added

* @access public

*/

function addRow($row) {

if ($this->preserveLeadingZerosInExcel) {

// convert the number to a string formula

foreach ($row as $key => $value){

if (strlen($value) > 1 && $value[0] == '0' && is_numeric($value)) {

$row[$key] = '="'.$value.'"';

}

}

}

fputcsv($this->buffer, $row, $this->delimiter, $this->enclosure);

}

/**

* Outputs headers

*

* @param string $filename Filename to save as

* @access public

*/

function renderHeaders($filename = null) {

if (is_string($filename)) {

$this->setFilename($filename);

}

if ($this->filename === null) {

$this->filename = 'Data.csv';

}

if ($this->filename) {

header("Content-disposition:attachment;filename=".$this->filename);

}

header("Content-type:application/vnd.ms-excel");

}

/**

* Sets the output filename. Automatically appends .csv if necessary.

*

* @param string $filename Filename to save as

* @access public

*/

function setFilename($filename) {

$this->filename = $filename;

if (strtolower(substr($this->filename, -4)) != '.csv') {

$this->filename .= '.csv';

}

}

/**

* Returns CSV string and clears internal buffer. Outputs headers() if necessary.

*

* @param mixed $outputHeaders Boolean to determine if should output headers, or a string to set the filename

* @param string $to_encoding Encoding to use

* @param string $from_encoding

* @return string String CSV formatted string

* @access public

*/

function render($outputHeaders = true, $to_encoding = null, $from_encoding = "auto") {

if ($outputHeaders) {

if (is_string($outputHeaders)) {

$this->setFilename($outputHeaders);

}

$this->renderHeaders();

}

if ($this->_tmpFile) {

rewind($this->buffer);

$output = '';

while (!feof($this->buffer)) {

$output .= fread($this->buffer, 8192);

}

fclose($this->buffer);

} else {

rewind($this->buffer);

$output = stream_get_contents($this->buffer);

}

// get around excel bug (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323626/)

if (substr($output,0,2) == 'ID') {

$pos = strpos($output, $this->delimiter);

if ($pos === false) {

$pos = strpos($output, "\n");

}

if ($pos !== false) {

$output = $this->enclosure . substr($output, 0, $pos) . $this->enclosure . substr($output, $pos);

}

}

if ($to_encoding) {

$output = mb_convert_encoding($output, $to_encoding, $from_encoding);

}

$this->clear();

return $this->output($output);

}

/**

* Clears internal buffer. This is called automatically by CsvHelper::render()

*

* @access public

*/

function clear() {

$this->line = array();

$this->buffer = @fopen('php://temp/maxmemory:'.(5*1024*1024), 'r+');

if ($this->buffer === false) {

$this->_tmpFile = true;

$this->buffer = tmpfile();

}

}

}

/**

* A PHP4 implementation of the equivalent PHP5 function

*

* See (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fputcsv.php) for details

*/

if (!function_exists('fputcsv')) {

function fputcsv(&$handle, $fields = array(), $delimiter = ',', $enclosure = '"') {

$str = '';

$escape_char = '\\';

foreach ($fields as $value) {

settype($value, 'string');

if (strpos($value, $delimiter) !== false ||

strpos($value, $enclosure) !== false ||

strpos($value, "\n") !== false ||

strpos($value, "\r") !== false ||

strpos($value, "\t") !== false ||

strpos($value, ' ') !== false) {

$str2 = $enclosure;

$escaped = 0;

$len = strlen($value);

for ($i=0;$i<$len;$i++) {

if ($value[$i] == $escape_char) {

$escaped = 1;

} else if (!$escaped && $value[$i] == $enclosure) {

$str2 .= $enclosure;

} else {

$escaped = 0;

}

$str2 .= $value[$i];

}

$str2 .= $enclosure;

$str .= $str2.$delimiter;

} else {

$str .= $value.$delimiter;

}

}

$str = substr($str,0,-1);

$str .= "\n";

return fwrite($handle, $str);

}

}

?>

• Copy this code into file /app/views/helpers/csv.php
• Add the helper to the controller where you are planning to use the CSV export feature.

class XXXController extends AppController {
.....
var $helpers = array('Html', 'Form' , 'Javascript', 'Ajax', 'Csv');
.....

• Create an export method that fetches the data (with a findAll for example) and set the data to the view. This method goes inside the controller with the CSV helper, of course

function exportcsv() {
$this->layout = '';
$this->set('dataToExport', $this->ZZZZ->findAll());

}

• Now, create a file in /app/views/yourcontrollername/exportcsv.ctp with this contents

<?php
$csv->addGrid($dataToExport);
echo $csv->render(true);
?>

• Done !

Notes: If you want to test the code generated, change render(false) for render(true) on the view, and the code will be shown on the browser.

Enjoy this new feature.