phpExcel writer using tcpdf shows binary contents on screen without save prompt - pdf-generation

Question

I am using PHPExcel library to generate excel reports and PDF reports. Excel reports are generated fine and browser lets the user save the report. But when I use PHPExcel writer to generate a PDF using the tcpdf library, it doesnt prompt the user to save the PDF and shows binary characters on screen as shown below:
%PDF-1.7 %���� 8 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 1 0 R /LastModified (D:20130417151157+05'30') /Resources 2 0 R /MediaBox [0.000000 0.000000 792.000000 612.000000] /CropBox [0.000000 0.000000 792.000000 612.000000] /BleedBox [0.000000 0.000000 792.000000 612.000000] /TrimBox [0.000000 0.000000 792.000000 612.000000] /ArtBox [0.000000 0.000000 792.000000 612.000000] /Contents 9 0 R /Rotate 0 /Group << /
If I save the PDF on server, I can access it and view the report correctly using document viewer. Hence the PDF itself is not corrupt.
The code am using is
$rendererName = PHPExcel_Settings::PDF_RENDERER_TCPDF;
$rendererLibraryPath = 'library/tcpdf';
PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRenderer(
$rendererName,
$rendererLibraryPath
);
$fullReportName = $reportName.".pdf";
$path = '/tmp/'.$fullReportName;
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'PDF');
$objWriter->save($path);
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($path)); // File size
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="'.$fullReportName.'"');
readfile($path);
Same behavior is seen if I use php://output directly from writer, instead of readfile as shown:
$objWriter->save('php://output');
How do I stop the binary from showing up and prompt the user for the file download?

Answer 1

<?php
/**
* PHPExcel
*
* Copyright (c) 2006 - 2015 PHPExcel
*
* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
* version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*
* #category PHPExcel
* #package PHPExcel
* #copyright Copyright (c) 2006 - 2015 PHPExcel (http://www.codeplex.com/PHPExcel)
* #license http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.txt LGPL
* #version ##VERSION##, ##DATE##
*/
/** Error reporting */
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', TRUE);
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
define('EOL',(PHP_SAPI == 'cli') ? PHP_EOL : '<br />');
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
/** PHPExcel_IOFactory */
require_once ('/Library/WebServer/Documents/library/excel/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php');
// Change these values to select the Rendering library that you wish to use
// and its directory location on your server
//$rendererName = PHPExcel_Settings::PDF_RENDERER_TCPDF;
//$rendererName = PHPExcel_Settings::PDF_RENDERER_MPDF;
$rendererName = PHPExcel_Settings::PDF_RENDERER_DOMPDF;
//$rendererLibrary = 'tcPDF5.9';
//$rendererLibrary = 'mPDF5.4';
$rendererLibrary = 'dompdf';
$rendererLibraryPath = '/Library/WebServer/Documents/library/'.$rendererLibrary;
$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
// Set properties
$objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
->setTitle("PDF Test Document")
->setSubject("PDF Test Document")
->setDescription("Test document for PDF, generated using PHP classes.")
->setKeywords("pdf php")
->setCategory("Test result file");
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="swap.pdf');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
// Add some data
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('B2', 'world!')
->setCellValue('C1', 'Hello')
->setCellValue('D2', 'world!');
// Miscellaneous glyphs, UTF-8
$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
->setCellValue('A4', 'Miscellaneous glyphs')
->setCellValue('A5', 'éàèùâêîôûëïüÿäöüç');
echo date('H:i:s') , " Hide grid lines" , EOL;
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setShowGridLines(true);
echo date('H:i:s') , " Set orientation to landscape" , EOL;
$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getPageSetup()->setOrientation(PHPExcel_Worksheet_PageSetup::ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
echo date('H:i:s') , " Write to PDF format using {$rendererName}" , EOL;
if (!PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRenderer(
$rendererName,
$rendererLibraryPath
)) {
die(
'NOTICE: Please set the $rendererName and $rendererLibraryPath values' .
EOL .
'at the top of this script as appropriate for your directory structure'
);
}
$callStartTime = microtime(true);
$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'PDF');
$objWriter->setSheetIndex(0);
//$objWriter->save('phpexcel_pdf.pdf');
$objWriter->save('php://output');
$callEndTime = microtime(true);
$callTime = $callEndTime - $callStartTime;
echo date('H:i:s') , " File written to " , str_replace('.php', '_'.$rendererName.'.pdf', pathinfo(__FILE__, PATHINFO_BASENAME)) , EOL;
echo 'Call time to write Workbook was ' , sprintf('%.4f',$callTime) , " seconds" , EOL;
// Echo memory usage
echo date('H:i:s') , ' Current memory usage: ' , (memory_get_usage(true) / 1024 / 1024) , " MB" , EOL;
// Echo memory peak usage
echo date('H:i:s') , " Peak memory usage: " , (memory_get_peak_usage(true) / 1024 / 1024) , " MB" , EOL;
// Echo done
echo date('H:i:s') , " Done writing files" , EOL;
echo 'File has been created in ' , getcwd() , EOL;
enter code here