Zend Framework 2 - Rendering CSV data

Question

i have a model that returns car data with id, name, price etc. So i have a car controller and a csv action that fetches this data from a model:

$carTable = $this->getServiceLocator()->get('Application\Model\DbTable\Cars');
$cars = $carTable->fetchAll();

i need to download this "$cars" data as a CSV file, so the user can store it on the disk.

I have tried to disable the layout and echo a CSV string and setting "content-type" and other headers, but it didn't work out of the box. Then i figured out that i should probably create a custom CsvRenderer and register it in configuration.

Since i couldn't find any documentation about this on the ZF2 site or in blogs and Stackoverflow answers, i would like to know if this is the recommended general approach for downloading data as CSV in ZF2? or is there a simpler solution that i am not aware of?

Thanks

This is not a place where one asks for final solutions. You should come here with questions of things you wanna do with a set of things you have already tried. You should name specific questions to specific problems! I want $a, how can i achieve this is not something all too welcomed in here — Sam
– Sam, Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:03
Ok. I improved the question. I would appreciate some help. Thank you. — Faris Zacina
– Faris Zacina, Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:45

Rob Allen · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 07:00:16Z

11

One solution would be to return a Response object directly from the controller.

Something like this stands a good chance of working:

public function downloadAction()
{
    // magically create $content as a string containing CSV data

    $response = $this->getResponse();
    $headers = $response->getHeaders();
    $headers->addHeaderLine('Content-Type', 'text/csv');
    $headers->addHeaderLine('Content-Disposition', "attachment; filename=\"my_filen.csv\"");
    $headers->addHeaderLine('Accept-Ranges', 'bytes');
    $headers->addHeaderLine('Content-Length', strlen($content));

    $response->setContent($content);
    return $response;
}

(Note that I haven't tested this code, but have updated in line with comment!)

edited Apr 17, 2013 at 7:00

answered Dec 3, 2012 at 20:10

Rob Allen

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2 Comments

Faris Zacina Over a year ago

Y.. the code didn't work exactly because the setHeader function does not exist, so i used $response->getHeaders()->addHeaders.. but anyway, the general approach was correct and it worked. Thanks.

Iznogood Over a year ago

Someone should edit the answer to reflect the code that did work.

Dragos · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-18 16:42:38Z

3

Since we are talking about ZF2, I would rather solve this by adding a new CSV ViewStrategy/Renderer/ViewModel.

Here you can read more about implementing own rendering and response strategies: Zend Docs

or even here: http://zend-framework-community.634137.n4.nabble.com/ZF2-Implementing-custom-renderer-strategy-td4655896.html

That will turn the code in the controller slimmer, cleaner and more clear, since you don't have to care about the headers in the controller, but in the renderer. Then, each time you need a new CSV output, you don't have to write that action all over again, you just use the CSV View model

answered Feb 18, 2014 at 16:42

Dragos

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2 Comments

Zippp Over a year ago

Won't it just output the csv content in the browser instead of downloading the file? If so than it is a huge disadvantage in case of larger files.

Wilt Over a year ago

@Zippp In the strategy you could simply do the exact same thing as in the accepted answer. We used a strategy like this for downloading contact cards and it works perfectly and is the proper way to implement download. Like that you could make one common strategy that works for downloading all kinds of different file types. You could even return a file stream from a strategy...

krchun · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-09 16:10:41Z

2

This is based off the answer provided by Rob.

In Rob's answer, by assigning $response->getHeaders() to a new $headers variable, then applying the ->addHeaderLine to that new variable, it does not properly set the headers on the $response. So when returned, the headers were not attached to the response.

To fix this, simply add the headers directly to the $response shown below:

public function downloadAction()
{
    // magically create $content as a string containing CSV data

    $response = $this->getResponse();
    $response->getHeaders()
             ->addHeaderLine('Content-Type', 'text/csv')
             ->addHeaderLine('Content-Disposition', "attachment; filename=\"my_filen.csv\"")
             ->addHeaderLine('Accept-Ranges', 'bytes')
             ->addHeaderLine('Content-Length', strlen($content));

    $response->setContent($content);
    return $response;
}

edited Sep 9, 2019 at 16:10

answered Apr 11, 2013 at 21:56

krchun

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3 Comments

Wilt Over a year ago

What are the differences to Rob his answer? I think it does exactly the same, it is only differently formatted...

krchun Over a year ago

By assigning $response->getHeaders() to a new $headers variable, then applying the ->addHeaderLine to that new variable, it does not properly set the headers on the $response. So when returned, the headers were not attached to the response.

Wilt Over a year ago

Thanks for the response to my comment. May I suggest to add this explanation to your answer, it will help people actually understand the difference.

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