Laravel Excel is designed at being a Laravel-flavoured PhpSpreadsheet. It is a manageable and elegant wrapper around PhpSpreadsheet to simplify exports and imports. PhpSpreadsheet is a php based library that enables you to read and write different spreadsheet file formats, like Excel and LibreOffice Calc. Laravel Excel has the following features:

1. Easily export collections to Excel.
2. Export queries with automatic chunking for better performance.
3. Queue exports for better performance.
4. Easily export Blade views to Excel.
5. Easily import to collections.
6. Read the Excel file in chunks.
7. Handle the import inserts in batches.

If you want to create easy import and export, excel file functionality, this laravel maatwebsite/excel tutorial is best for you.

At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to download or import excel & CSV files directly from the database in laravel application.

Requirements

1. PHP: ^7.2|^8.0
2. Laravel: ^5.8
3. PhpSpreadsheet: ^1.15
4. PHP extension php_zip enabled
5. PHP extension php_xml enabled
6. PHP extension php_gd2 enabled
7. PHP extension php_iconv enabled
8. PHP extension php_simplexml enabled
9. PHP extension php_xmlreader enabled
10. PHP extension php_zlib enabled

Step 1: Install Laravel Project

First, open Terminal and run the following command to create a fresh laravel project:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel-excel

or, if you have installed the Laravel Installer as a global composer dependency:

laravel new laravel-excel

Step 2: Configure Database Details

After, Installation Go to the project root directory, open .env file, and set database detail as follow:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql 
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 
DB_PORT=3306 
DB_DATABASE=<DATABASE NAME>
DB_USERNAME=<DATABASE USERNAME>
DB_PASSWORD=<DATABASE PASSWORD>

Step 3: Install maatwebsite/excel package

You can install Laravel Excel via composer. You've to run this command for the installation.

composer require maatwebsite/excel

Register Plugin’s Service in Providers & Aliases

You can have the following code placed inside the config/app.php file.

'providers' => [
  Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider::class,
 ],  

'aliases' => [ 
  'Excel' => Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel::class,
], 

Execute the vendor, publish the command, and publish the config.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider" --tag=config

Step 4: Generate Fake Data and Migrate Table

In the First step, We migrate the user table. After migration run successfully We moved to the second step.

php artisan migrate

In the Second Step, We generate the fake record. Here We use tinker to generate the fake records. You can use a different method as of your requirement.

php artisan tinker

After Opening the tinker, you need to run this command to generate the fake records in our database.

User::factory()->count(100)->create();

Step 5: Create a Routes

In this step, We will add a route to handle requests for import and export files.

use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;

Route::get('/file-import',[UserController::class,'importView'])->name('import-view');
Route::post('/import',[UserController::class,'import'])->name('import');
Route::get('/export-users',[UserController::class,'exportUsers'])->name('export-users');

Step 6: Create Import Class

Maatwebsite provides a way to build an import class and we have to use it in the controller. So it would be a great way to create a new Import class. So you have to run the following command and change the following code on that file:

php artisan make:import ImportUser --model=User

app/Imports/ImportUser.php

<?php

namespace App\Imports;

use App\Models\User;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToModel;

class ImportUser implements ToModel
{
    /**
    * @param array $row
    *
    * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model|null
    */
    public function model(array $row)
    {
        return new User([
            'name' => $row[0],
            'email' => $row[1],
            'password' => bcrypt($row[2]),
        ]);
    }
}

Here you can see map CSV or excel column value to our Eloquent Model. You need to format that CSV or excel column as you map in your import class.

Step 7: Create Export Class

Maatwebsite provides a way to build an export class and we have to use it in the controller. So it would be a great way to create a new export class. So you have to run the following command and change the following code on that file:

php artisan make:export ExportUser --model=User

app/Exports/ExportUser.php

<?php

namespace App\Exports;

use App\Models\User;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection;

class ExportUser implements FromCollection
{
    /**
    * @return \Illuminate\Support\Collection
    */
    public function collection()
    {
        return User::select('name','email')->get();
    }
}

Step 8: Create Controller

Next, We have to create a controller to display a form to upload CSV or excel file records. Let's Create a controller named UserController using the command given below:

php artisan make:controller UserController

Once the above command executed, it will create a controller file UserController.php in app/Http/Controllers directory. Open UserController.php file and put this code into that file.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel;
use App\Imports\ImportUser;
use App\Exports\ExportUser;
use App\Models\User;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function importView(Request $request){
        return view('importFile');
    }

    public function import(Request $request){
        Excel::import(new ImportUser, $request->file('file')->store('files'));
        return redirect()->back();
    }

    public function exportUsers(Request $request){
        return Excel::download(new ExportUser, 'users.xlsx');
    }
}

Step 9: Create Blade / View Files

We have reached the last step. In general, here we need to formulate the view for handling importing and exporting through the frontend. Create a resources/views/importFile.blade.php file to set up the view. Place the following code inside the blade view file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="{{ str_replace('_', '-', app()->getLocale()) }}">

<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <title>Laravel 8 Import Export Excel & CSV File - TechvBlogs</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>

<body>
    <div class="container mt-5 text-center">
        <h2 class="mb-4">
            Laravel 8 Import Export Excel & CSV File - <a href="https://techvblogs.com/blog/laravel-import-export-excel-csv-file?ref=repo" target="_blank">TechvBlogs</a>
        </h2>
        <form action="{{ route('import') }}" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
            @csrf
            <div class="form-group mb-4">
                <div class="custom-file text-left">
                    <input type="file" name="file" class="custom-file-input" id="customFile">
                    <label class="custom-file-label" for="customFile">Choose file</label>
                </div>
            </div>
            <button class="btn btn-primary">Import Users</button>
            <a class="btn btn-success" href="{{ route('export-users') }}">Export Users</a>
        </form>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Run Laravel Application

Lastly, we have to run the Laravel application, for this, we have to go to the command prompt, and write the following command:

php artisan serve

After executing this command, Open http://localhost:8000/file-import in your browser.

Thank you for reading this blog.