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

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