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Export Report from Code

The report generator allows exporting reports or dashboards to various formats. The table below lists all the available export formats for reports and dashboards:

Export format	Reports	Dashboards
Document (Snapshot)	+	+
Adobe PDF	+	+
XPS (XML Paper Specification)	+	-
Microsoft PowerPoint	+	-
HTML	+	+
HTML5	+	-
Text	+	-
Microsoft Word	+	-
Microsoft Excel	+	+
OpenDocument Writer	+	-
OpenDocument Calc	+	-
RTF (Rich Text Format)	+	-

Data format	Reports	Dashboards
CSV (Comma Separated Value)	+	+
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)	+	+
XML (Extensible Markup Language)	+	+
DBF (dBase/FoxPro)	+	+
DIF	+	+
SYLK (Symbolic Link)	+	+

Image format	Reports	Dashboards
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)	+	+
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)	+	+
GIF (Graphics Interchange)	+	+
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)	+	+
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)	+	+
SVGZ (Compressed SVG)	+	+
PCX (Picture Exchange)	+	+
BMP (Windows Bitmap)	+	+

To export a report, you need to use the exportDocument() method of the report object.

index.php

<?php

use Stimulsoft\Export\Enums\StiExportFormat;

use Stimulsoft\Report\StiReport;

$report = new StiReport();

$report->loadFile('reports/SimpleList.mrt');

$report->render();

$report->exportDocument(StiExportFormat::Pdf);

$report->printHtml();

Full example code is available on GitHub.

Information

Exporting a report doesn’t automatically trigger the report generation, so for a loaded report template, you must first call the render() method to build the report. For completed documents (already built reports), this method isn’t required.

As arguments for the exportDocument() method, you must specify the desired export format from the StiExportFormat enumeration, and optionally, the export settings. The available formats are listed in the table below:

Name	Description
StiExportFormat::Document	Saving the document (built report).
StiExportFormat::Pdf	Saving the document (built report).
StiExportFormat::Xps	Saving in XPS (XML Paper Specification) format.
StiExportFormat::PowerPoint	Saving in Microsoft PowerPoint format.
StiExportFormat::Html	Saving in HTML format.
StiExportFormat::Html5	Saving in HTML5 format using SVG markup elements.
StiExportFormat::Text	Saving in text format.
StiExportFormat::Word	Saving in Microsoft Word format.
StiExportFormat::Excel	Saving in Microsoft Excel format.
StiExportFormat::Odt	Saving in OpenDocument Writer format.
StiExportFormat::Ods	Saving in OpenDocument Calc format.
StiExportFormat::Rtf	Saving in RTF (Rich Text Format) format.
StiExportFormat::Csv	Saving in CSV (Comma Separated Values) data format.
StiExportFormat::Json	Saving in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data format.
StiExportFormat::Xml	Saving in XML (Extensible Markup Language) data format.
StiExportFormat::Dbf	Saving in DBF (dBase/FoxPro) data format.
StiExportFormat::Dif	Saving in DIF data format.
StiExportFormat::Sylk	Saving in SYLK (Symbolic Link) data format.
StiExportFormat::ImagePng	Saving in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageJpeg	Saving in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageGif	Saving in GIF (Graphics Interchange) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageTiff	Saving in TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageSvg	Saving in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageSvgz	Saving in SVGZ (Compressed SVG) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImagePcx	Saving in PCX (Picture Exchange) image format.
StiExportFormat::ImageBmp	Saving in BMP (Windows Bitmap) image format.

After exporting the report, the resulting data stream will be sent to the browser for download as a file. The file name and MIME type will be determined automatically. There’s also an option to display the exported report directly in the browser window (only for PDF, HTML, and images) by setting the openAfterExport argument to true.

index.php

<?php

$report->exportDocument(StiExportFormat::Pdf, null, true);

Exporting a report on the server-side

To switch the report generator to server-side mode, set the report’s engine property to StiEngineType::ServerNodeJS. All other events and methods for working with the report remain the same as when exporting on the client-side. When exporting on the server-side, the exportDocument() method will return a byte stream of the exported report.

Example of exporting a report to text format on the server-side:

index.php

<?php

use Stimulsoft\Export\Enums\StiExportFormat;

use Stimulsoft\Report\Enums\StiEngineType;

use Stimulsoft\Report\StiReport;

$report = new StiReport();

$report->engine = StiEngineType::ServerNodeJS;

$report->loadFile('reports/SimpleList.mrt');

$report->render();

$result = $report->exportDocument(StiExportFormat::Text);

Full example code is available on GitHub.

It’s possible to automatically save the exported report as a file on the server. To do this, specify the save path in the filePath argument of the export method. In this case, the exportDocument() method will return a boolean result indicating whether the export and file save were successful.

Example of exporting a report to Adobe PDF format on the server-side and saving the result to a specified directory:

index.php

<?php

use Stimulsoft\Export\Enums\StiExportFormat;

use Stimulsoft\Report\Enums\StiEngineType;

use Stimulsoft\Report\StiReport;

$report = new StiReport();

$report->engine = StiEngineType::ServerNodeJS;

$report->loadFile('reports/SimpleList.mrt');

$report->render();

$exportedFilePath = 'reports/SimpleList.pdf';

$result = $report->exportDocument(StiExportFormat::Pdf, null, false, $exportedFilePath);

Export report settings

When exporting a report from code, you can set the necessary export settings. Each export format has its own settings class, as listed in the table below:

Report Export Format	Settings class
StiExportFormat::Document	No settings are provided.
StiExportFormat::Pdf	StiPdfExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Xps	StiXpsExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::PowerPoint	StiPowerPointExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Html StiExportFormat::Html5	StiHtmlExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Text	StiTxtExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Word	StiWordExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Excel	StiExcelExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Odt	StiOdtExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Ods	StiOdsExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Rtf	StiRtfExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Csv StiExportFormat::Json StiExportFormat::Xml StiExportFormat::Dbf StiExportFormat::Dif StiExportFormat::Sylk	StiDataExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::ImagePng StiExportFormat::ImageJpeg StiExportFormat::ImageGif StiExportFormat::ImageTiff StiExportFormat::ImageSvg StiExportFormat::ImageSvgz StiExportFormat::ImagePcx StiExportFormat::ImageBmp	StiImageExportSettings()

Dashboard Export Format	Settings class
StiExportFormat::Pdf	StiPdfDashboardExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Html	StiHtmlDashboardExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Excel	StiExcelDashboardExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::Csv	StiDataDashboardExportSettings()
StiExportFormat::ImageSvg	StiImageDashboardExportSettings()

To apply the export settings, simply pass the prepared settings object as a parameter to the report’s export method. All other actions will be handled automatically.

Example of exporting a report to Adobe PDF format on the server-side, specifying company details in the settings and disabling embedded fonts:

index.php

<?php

use Stimulsoft\Export\Enums\StiExportFormat;

use Stimulsoft\Export\StiPdfExportSettings;

use Stimulsoft\Report\Enums\StiEngineType;

use Stimulsoft\Report\StiReport;

$report = new StiReport();

$report->engine = StiEngineType::ServerNodeJS;

$report->loadFile('reports/SimpleList.mrt');

$report->render();

$settings = new StiPdfExportSettings();

$settings->creatorString = 'My Company Name';

$settings->keywordsString = 'SimpleList PHP Report Export';

$settings->embeddedFonts = false;

$result = $report->exportDocument(StiExportFormat::Pdf, $settings);

Full example code is available on GitHub.

Information

The class of the export settings object must match the export format. Otherwise, the format returned by the getExportFormat() method of the export settings object will take precedence.