Question

I’m looking for a server-side (PHP) way of manipulating / producing xls / xlsx files from MySQL data.

I have an existing template xls file, with various relatively complicated cell dependant formulas and charts and such included, my hope is that I can upload this template file to my server and use PHPExcel to edit that file, and save it: allowing it to be downloaded.

So my formulas are kept, the charts are kept, and I simply have to edit the data for certain cells based on values from the database –> charts drawn based on these values.

Is that kind of thing within PHPExcels remit?

Reading a related question here:
PHPExcel modify existing .xlsx file with multiple worksheet

Someone stated:

Macros and User-Defined Functions are not supported in PHPExcel; and
the library discards any unsupported features of a workbook when it is
loaded, so they don’t exist in the PHPExcel object at all… when
saving, PHPExcel only saves those elements of the workbook that exist
in the PHPExcel object.

Would a user defined function include simple cell formulas?

Thanks!

Answer 1

No. Simple cell formulas will still be there. Just not any VBA code.