Migration from PHPExcel

PhpSpreadsheet introduced many breaking changes by introducing namespaces and renaming some classes. To help you migrate existing project, a tool was written to replace all references to PHPExcel classes to their new names. But there are also manual changes that need to be done.

Automated tool

RectorPHP can be used to automatically migrate your codebase. Note that this support has been dropped from current releases of rector, so you need to require an earlier release to do this. Assuming that your files to be migrated live in src/, you can run the migration like so:

composer require rector/rector:0.15.10 rector/rector-phpoffice phpoffice/phpspreadsheet --dev

# this creates rector.php config
vendor/bin/rector init 

Add PHPOfficeSetList set to rector.php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;
use Rector\PHPOffice\Set\PHPOfficeSetList;

return static function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
    $rectorConfig->sets([
        PHPOfficeSetList::PHPEXCEL_TO_PHPSPREADSHEET
    ]);
};

And run Rector on your code:

vendor/bin/rector process src

For more details, see rector-phpoffice.

Manual changes

RectorPHP should take care of everything, but if somehow it does not work, you can review/apply the following manual changes

Renamed readers and writers

When using IOFactory::createReader(), IOFactory::createWriter() and IOFactory::identify(), the reader/writer short names are used. Those were changed, along as their corresponding class, to remove ambiguity:

Before After
'CSV' 'Csv'
'Excel2003XML' 'Xml'
'Excel2007' 'Xlsx'
'Excel5' 'Xls'
'Gnumeric' 'Gnumeric'
'HTML' 'Html'
'OOCalc' 'Ods'
'OpenDocument' 'Ods'
'PDF' 'Pdf'
'SYLK' 'Slk'

Simplified IOFactory

The following methods :

  • PHPExcel_IOFactory::getSearchLocations()
  • PHPExcel_IOFactory::setSearchLocations()
  • PHPExcel_IOFactory::addSearchLocation()

were replaced by IOFactory::registerReader() and IOFactory::registerWriter(). That means IOFactory now relies on classes autoloading.

Before:

// Before
\PHPExcel_IOFactory::addSearchLocation($type, $location, $classname);

// After
\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::registerReader($type, $classname);

Removed deprecated things

Worksheet::duplicateStyleArray()

// Before
$worksheet->duplicateStyleArray($styles, $range, $advanced);

// After
$worksheet->getStyle($range)->applyFromArray($styles, $advanced);

DataType::dataTypeForValue()

// Before
DataType::dataTypeForValue($value);

// After
DefaultValueBinder::dataTypeForValue($value);

Conditional::getCondition()

// Before
$conditional->getCondition();

// After
$conditional->getConditions()[0];

Conditional::setCondition()

// Before
$conditional->setCondition($value);

// After
$conditional->setConditions($value);

Worksheet::getDefaultStyle()

// Before
$worksheet->getDefaultStyle();

// After
$worksheet->getParent()->getDefaultStyle();

Worksheet::setDefaultStyle()

// Before
$worksheet->setDefaultStyle($value);

// After
$worksheet->getParent()->getDefaultStyle()->applyFromArray([
    'font' => [
        'name' => $pValue->getFont()->getName(),
        'size' => $pValue->getFont()->getSize(),
    ],
]);

Worksheet::setSharedStyle()

// Before
$worksheet->setSharedStyle($sharedStyle, $range);

// After
$worksheet->duplicateStyle($sharedStyle, $range);

Worksheet::getSelectedCell()

// Before
$worksheet->getSelectedCell();

// After
$worksheet->getSelectedCells();

Writer\Xls::setTempDir()

// Before
$writer->setTempDir();

// After, there is no way to set temporary storage directory anymore

Autoloader

The class PHPExcel_Autoloader was removed entirely and is replaced by composer autoloading mechanism.

Writing PDF

PDF libraries must be installed via composer. And the following methods were removed and are replaced by IOFactory::registerWriter() instead:

  • PHPExcel_Settings::getPdfRenderer()
  • PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRenderer()
  • PHPExcel_Settings::getPdfRendererName()
  • PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRendererName()

Before:

\PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRendererName(PHPExcel_Settings::PDF_RENDERER_MPDF);
\PHPExcel_Settings::setPdfRenderer($somePath);
$writer = \PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($spreadsheet, 'PDF');

After:

$writer = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createWriter($spreadsheet, 'Mpdf');

// Or alternatively
\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::registerWriter('Pdf', \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Pdf\Mpdf::class);
$writer = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createWriter($spreadsheet, 'Pdf');

// Or alternatively
$writer = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Pdf\Mpdf($spreadsheet);

Rendering charts

When rendering charts for HTML or PDF outputs, the process was simplified. And, while JpGraph support is still available, the version distributed via Composer is no longer maintained, so you would need to install the current version manually. If you rely on this package, please consider contributing patches either to JpGraph or another IRenderer implementation (a good candidate might be CpChart).

The package mitoteam/jpgraph is distributed via Composer, and is fully compatible with Jpgraph. We recommend that it be used for rendering.

Before:

$rendererName = \PHPExcel_Settings::CHART_RENDERER_JPGRAPH;
$rendererLibrary = 'jpgraph3.5.0b1/src/';
$rendererLibraryPath = '/php/libraries/Charts/' . $rendererLibrary;

\PHPExcel_Settings::setChartRenderer($rendererName, $rendererLibraryPath);

After:

Require the dependency via composer:

composer require mitoteam/jpgraph

And then:

Settings::setChartRenderer(\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Chart\Renderer\MtJpGraphRenderer::class);

PclZip and ZipArchive

Support for PclZip were dropped in favor of the more complete and modern PHP extension ZipArchive. So the following were removed:

  • PclZip
  • PHPExcel_Settings::setZipClass()
  • PHPExcel_Settings::getZipClass()
  • PHPExcel_Shared_ZipArchive
  • PHPExcel_Shared_ZipStreamWrapper

Cell caching

Cell caching was heavily refactored to leverage PSR-16. That means most classes related to that feature were removed:

  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_APC
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_DiscISAM
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_ICache
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_Igbinary
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_Memcache
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_Memory
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_MemoryGZip
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_MemorySerialized
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_PHPTemp
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_SQLite
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_SQLite3
  • PHPExcel_CachedObjectStorage_Wincache

In addition to that, \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet::getCellCollection() was renamed to \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet::getCoordinates() and \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet::getCellCacheController() to \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet::getCellCollection() for clarity.

Refer to the new documentation to see how to migrate.

Dropped conditionally returned cell

For all the following methods, it is not possible to change the type of returned value. They will always return the Worksheet and never the Cell or Rule:

  • Worksheet::setCellValue()
  • Worksheet::setCellValueByColumnAndRow() (deprecated)
  • Worksheet::setCellValueExplicit()
  • Worksheet::setCellValueExplicitByColumnAndRow() (deprecated)
  • Worksheet::addRule()

Migration would be similar to:

// Before
$cell = $worksheet->setCellValue('A1', 'value', true);

// After
$cell = $worksheet->getCell('A1')->setValue('value');

Standardized keys for styling

Array keys used for styling have been standardized for a more coherent experience. It now uses the same wording and casing as the getter and setter:

// Before
$style = [
    'numberformat' => [
        'code' => NumberFormat::FORMAT_CURRENCY_EUR_SIMPLE,
    ],
    'font' => [
        'strike' => true,
        'superScript' => true,
        'subScript' => true,
    ],
    'alignment' => [
        'rotation' => 90,
        'readorder' => Alignment::READORDER_RTL,
        'wrap' => true,
    ],
    'borders' => [
        'diagonaldirection' => Borders::DIAGONAL_BOTH,
        'allborders' => [
            'style' => Border::BORDER_THIN,
        ],
    ],
    'fill' => [
        'type' => Fill::FILL_GRADIENT_LINEAR,
        'startcolor' => [
            'argb' => 'FFA0A0A0',
        ],
        'endcolor' => [
            'argb' => 'FFFFFFFF',
        ],
    ],
];

// After
$style = [
    'numberFormat' => [
        'formatCode' => NumberFormat::FORMAT_CURRENCY_EUR_SIMPLE,
    ],
    'font' => [
        'strikethrough' => true,
        'superscript' => true,
        'subscript' => true,
    ],
    'alignment' => [
        'textRotation' => 90,
        'readOrder' => Alignment::READORDER_RTL,
        'wrapText' => true,
    ],
    'borders' => [
        'diagonalDirection' => Borders::DIAGONAL_BOTH,
        'allBorders' => [
            'borderStyle' => Border::BORDER_THIN,
        ],
    ],
    'fill' => [
        'fillType' => Fill::FILL_GRADIENT_LINEAR,
        'startColor' => [
            'argb' => 'FFA0A0A0',
        ],
        'endColor' => [
            'argb' => 'FFFFFFFF',
        ],
    ],
];

Dedicated class to manipulate coordinates

Methods to manipulate coordinates that used to exists in PHPExcel_Cell were extracted to a dedicated new class \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Cell\Coordinate. The methods are:

  • absoluteCoordinate()
  • absoluteReference()
  • buildRange()
  • columnIndexFromString()
  • coordinateFromString()
  • extractAllCellReferencesInRange()
  • getRangeBoundaries()
  • mergeRangesInCollection()
  • rangeBoundaries()
  • rangeDimension()
  • splitRange()
  • stringFromColumnIndex()

Column index based on 1

Column indexes are now based on 1. So column A is the index 1. This is consistent with rows starting at 1 and Excel function COLUMN() that returns 1 for column A. So the code must be adapted with something like:

// Before
$cell = $worksheet->getCellByColumnAndRow($column, $row);

for ($column = 0; $column < $max; ++$column) {
    $worksheet->setCellValueByColumnAndRow($column, $row, 'value');
}

// After
$cell = $worksheet->getCell([$column + 1, $row]);

for ($column = 1; $column <= $max; ++$column) {
    $worksheet->setCellValue([$column, $row], 'value');
}

All the following methods are affected, and all are now deprecated (see example above for how to replace them):

  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::cellExistsByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::freezePaneByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::getCellByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::getColumnDimensionByColumn()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::getCommentByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::getStyleByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::insertNewColumnBeforeByIndex()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::mergeCellsByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::protectCellsByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::removeColumnByIndex()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::setAutoFilterByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::setBreakByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::setCellValueByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::setCellValueExplicitByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::setSelectedCellByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::stringFromColumnIndex()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::unmergeCellsByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet::unprotectCellsByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet_PageSetup::addPrintAreaByColumnAndRow()
  • PHPExcel_Worksheet_PageSetup::setPrintAreaByColumnAndRow()

Removed default values

Default values for many methods were removed when it did not make sense. Typically, setter methods should not have default values. For a complete list of methods and their original default values, see that commit.