Laravel Fast Excel – Speed up Excel exports

Laravel Fast Excel is a package that significantly enhances the speed and performance of Excel file exports in Laravel applications. It provides a simple and efficient way to generate Excel files, leveraging the underlying PhpSpreadsheet library while focusing on speed and low memory usage.

Installation

You can install the Laravel Fast Excel package using Composer:

bash

composer require maatwebsite/excel

1	composer require maatwebsite/excel

Basic Usage

Exporting Data

Creating an Export Class: First, you need to create an export class. You can generate an export class using the Artisan command:

bash

php artisan make:export UsersExport

1

php artisan make:export UsersExport

This command creates a file in the App\Exports directory.

Implementing the Export Class: In your export class, implement the FromCollection interface to specify the data you want to export. Here’s an example of an export class for users:

php

namespace App\Exports;

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

class UsersExport implements FromCollection
{
    public function collection()
    {
        return User::all();
    }
}

namespace App\Exports;

use App\Models\User;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection;

class UsersExport implements FromCollection

{

public function collection()

{

return User::all();

}

3.Exporting the Data: You can then export your data to Excel format in a controller or any part of your application:

php

use App\Exports\UsersExport;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel;

public function export()
{
    return Excel::download(new UsersExport, 'users.xlsx');
}

use App\Exports\UsersExport;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel;

public function export()

{

return Excel::download(new UsersExport, 'users.xlsx');

}

Advanced Features

Chunking Data

For larger datasets, you might want to use chunking to reduce memory usage. You can implement the FromQuery interface and utilize chunking as follows:

php

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithHeadings;

class UsersExport implements FromQuery, WithHeadings
{
    public function query()
    {
        return User::query();
    }

    public function headings(): array
    {
        return [
            'ID',
            'Name',
            'Email',
            'Created At',
            'Updated At',
        ];
    }
}

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithHeadings;

class UsersExport implements FromQuery, WithHeadings

{

public function query()

{

return User::query();

}

public function headings(): array

{

return [

'ID',

'Name',

'Email',

'Created At',

'Updated At',

];

}

Exporting to Different Formats

Laravel Fast Excel allows you to export to multiple formats, such as CSV or HTML. You can specify the format when calling the download method:

php

return Excel::download(new UsersExport, 'users.csv'); // For CSV export

1	return Excel::download(new UsersExport, 'users.csv'); // For CSV export

Example Output

Here’s an example of how the exported Excel file might look when using Laravel Fast Excel:

ID	Name	Email	Created At	Updated At
1	John Doe	john@example.com	2024-01-01 12:00:00	2024-01-01 12:00:00
2	Jane Smith	jane@example.com	2024-01-02 14:30:00	2024-01-02 14:30:00
…	…	…	…	…

Conclusion

Laravel Fast Excel provides a robust and efficient way to handle Excel exports in your Laravel applications. Its simplicity and performance benefits make it an excellent choice for projects dealing with large datasets or requiring quick export capabilities.