How can I export tables to Excel from a webpage

Question

How can I export tables to Excel from a webpage. I want the export to contain all the formatting and colours.

Answer 1

Far and away, the cleanest, easiest export from tables to Excel is Jquery DataTables Table Tools plugin. You get a grid that sorts, filters, orders, and pages your data, and with just a few extra lines of code and two small files included, you get export to Excel, PDF, CSV, to clipboard and to the printer.

This is all the code that's required:

  $(document).ready( function () {
    $('#example').dataTable( {
        "sDom": 'T<"clear">lfrtip',
        "oTableTools": {
            "sSwfPath": "/swf/copy_cvs_xls_pdf.swf"
        }
    } );
} );

So, quick to deploy, no browser limitations, no server-side language required, and most of all very EASY to understand. It's a win-win. The one thing it does have limits on, though, is strict formatting of columns.

If formatting and colors are absolute dealbreakers, the only 100% reliable, cross browser method I've found is to use a server-side language to process proper Excel files from your code. My solution of choice is PHPExcel It is the only one I've found so far that positively handles export with formatting to a MODERN version of Excel from any browser when you give it nothing but HTML. Let me clarify though, it's definitely not as easy as the first solution, and also is a bit of a resource hog. However, on the plus side it also can output direct to PDF as well. And, once you get it configured, it just works, every time.

UPDATE - September 15, 2016: TableTools has been discontinued in favor of a new plugin called "buttons" These tools perform the same functions as the old TableTools extension, but are FAR easier to install and they make use of HTML5 downloads for modern browsers, with the capability to fallback to the original Flash download for browsers that don't support the HTML5 standard. As you can see from the many comments since I posted this response in 2011, the main weakness of TableTools has been addressed. I still can't recommend DataTables enough for handling large amounts of data simply, both for the developer and the user.