README

Summary
=======
php-excel is a really simple library class written in PHP to
dump an array of data into an Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice
Calc readable format. This is version 2 of the older library
still hosted on Google Code at:

http://code.google.com/p/php-excel

The class is inspired by the MySQL Query tool which offers a
simple extraction of database tables into Microsoft's Open XML
format. However, I was always looking for a way to do this in
an app or a website with some data which belongs in a table.

What is it?
-----------
The function is simple: You generate an array - even a larger
array, dump it into the class and select whether you want to
write it into an excel-readable file or send this file directly
to your browser.

What isn't?
-----------
It can not deal with complex operations or layouts. If you
like to design your tabular data using colors or font-styles
or if you want the excel file to contain formulas, you better
use a much more sophisticated export library. I recommend using
the beautiful:

http://www.codeplex.com/PHPExcel/

... which is far more capable of such things.

How to use it?
--------------
The usage is very, very simple. Here's the script for adding
a simple array to the php-excel library and sending the file
to the browser (for downloading):

<?php

require 'php-excel.class.php';
$mydata = array(array(1 => 'Oliver Schwarz', 'Friedhelm Hasematzel'));
$xls = new Excel_XML;
$xls->addWorksheet('My data', $mydata);
$xls->sendWorkbook('mydata.xls');

?>

See test.php for more details.