PHPExcel can't save the file or download it

Question

I'm trying to code a function in PHP to export some data to Excel file. The problem is if I save it to the server it does work, but if I try to send to the browser using php://output it just doesn't work. It doesn't even show the download window. I' ve been getting these as response:

PK����a�B%���a��������[Content_Types].xml͔]K�0���%��f� "�v��R���kX����׿�m��+����4�<�'��2�jgs6�,+��v����Sz���a�����tr5^�=Bb�9+c����,��9��.T"�kXr/�J,���[.��`ck6�?h�\��,���ܠ}3�c�C+��9�-E��|c�j�BKPN�+�d��u��O1� o��Ba +���G�

The headers are:

Response Headers
Cache-Control   no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Connection  Keep-Alive
Content-Disposition attachment;filename="Report.xlsx"
Content-Type    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Date    Wed, 29 May 2013 10:08:10 GMT
Expires Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Keep-Alive  timeout=15, max=78
Last-Modified   Wed, 29 May 2013 10:08:11 GMT
Pragma  no-cache
Server  Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
Transfer-Encoding   chunked
X-Powered-By    PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.19
Request Headers
Accept  */*
Accept-Encoding gzip, deflate
Accept-Language en-US,en;q=0.5
Cookie  PHPSESSID=075r4aaqrvcnbca5sshjvm0jq7; 87293ba76812d31889be0901b086dd73=5h4jriq5c7r9vdt3m2u2u9up43; d82d00149fafbe651c9ba75a9804bbc9=en-GB
Host    150.145.139.3:8889
Referer 
User-Agent  Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
X-Requested-With    XMLHttpRequest

Here's my code:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', TRUE);



date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Rome');

require_once 'Classes/PHPExcel.php'; 
/** PHPExcel_IOFactory */
include 'Classes/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php';



$target ='templates/';
$fileType = 'Excel2007';   
$InputFileName = $target.'richiesta.xlsx';   
$OutputFileName = $target     .'Richiesta_'.$_SESSION['User'].'_'.$_SESSION['Last'].'_'.$dat.'.xlsx';



//Read the file (including chart template) 
$objReader = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createReader($fileType); 
//$objReader->setIncludeCharts(TRUE);
$objPHPExcel = $objReader->load($InputFileName); 

 //Change the file 


$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
// Add data
            ->setCellValue('C3','10' )
            ->setCellValue('C4','20' )
            ->setCellValue('C5','30')
            ->setCellValue('C5','40' );


$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, $fileType);

//$objWriter->save($OutputFileName);  //This one WORKS FINE!!!




header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="Report.xlsx"');


$objWriter->save('php://output'); //NOT WORKING :-(
$objPHPExcel->disconnectWorksheets();
unset($objPHPExcel);

exit;

I'm getting depressed about this problem once I have to finish the project this week. I really appreciate any kind of help!

Answer 1

That's just from my code, as a hint, the problem seems to be with the Content-Type HTTP header:

if (strtolower($type) == 'excel2003') {
    $objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($this->excel, 'Excel5');
    header('Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="' . $outFileName . '"');
    header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
} else {
    $objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($this->excel, 'Excel2007');
    header('Content-Type: application/xlsx');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="' . $outFileName . '"');
    header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
}