This tutorial has a new version, check it out!
> Symfony 3 > EasyAdminBundle v1 for an Amazing Admin Interface
Login to bookmark this video
Buy Access to Course
20.

CSV Export

Share this awesome video!

|

Keep on Learning!

Start your All-Access Pass

With a Subscription, click any sentence in the script to jump to that part of the video!

Login Subscribe

When we started this tutorial, we kept getting the same question:

Ryan, would you rather have rollerblades for feet or chopsticks for hands for the rest of your life?

I don't know the answer, but Eddie from Southern Rail can definitely answer this.

We also got this question:

How can I add a "CSV Export" button to my admin list pages?

And now we know why you asked this question: it's tricky! I want to add a button on top that says "Export". But, when you add a custom action to the list page... those create links next to each item, not on top. That's not what we want!

Defining the Custom Action

So let's see if we can figure this out. First, in config.yml, under the global list, we are going to add a new action, called export:

159 lines | app/config/config.yml
// ... lines 1 - 80
easy_admin:
// ... lines 82 - 94
list:
// ... line 96
actions: ['show', 'export']
// ... lines 98 - 159

Now, if we refresh... not surprisingly, this adds an "export" link next to every item. And if we click it, it tries to execute a new exportAction() method.

So this is a bit weird: we do not want this new link on each row - we'll fix that in a few minutes. But we do need the new export action. Why? Because as soon as we add this, it's now legal to create a link that executes exportAction(). And that means that we could manually add this link somewhere else... like on top of the list page.

Open up our custom list.html.twig:

8 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
{% block item_actions %}
{% set _list_item_actions = _list_item_actions|filter_admin_actions(item) %}
{{ parent() }}
{% endblock %}

I'll also hold Command and click to open the parent list.html.twig from the bundle. If you scroll down a little bit, you'll find a block called global_actions. Ah, it looks like it's rendering the search field. The global_actions block represents this area on top.

In other words, if we want to add a new link here, global_actions is the place to do it! Copy that block name and override it inside of our template: global_actions and endlock:

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
// ... lines 10 - 20
{% endblock global_actions %}

Inside, we'll add the Export button.

But wait! I have an idea. What if we only want to add the export button to some entities? Sure, I added the export action in the global section... but we could still remove it from any other entity by saying -export. Basically, I want this button to be smart: I only want to show it if the export action is enabled for this entity.

How can we figure that out? In the parent template, you'll find a really cool if statement that checks to see if an action is enabled. Steal it!

In our case, change search to export:

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
// ... lines 10 - 11
{% if easyadmin_action_is_enabled_for_list_view('export', _entity_config.name) %}
// ... lines 13 - 19
{% endif %}
{% endblock global_actions %}

At this point, we can do whatever we want. So, very simply, let's add a new link that points to the export action. Add a button-action div for styling:

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
// ... lines 10 - 11
{% if easyadmin_action_is_enabled_for_list_view('export', _entity_config.name) %}
<div class="button-action">
// ... lines 15 - 18
</div>
{% endif %}
{% endblock global_actions %}

Then, inside, a link with btn btn-primary and an href. How can we point to the exportAction()? Remember, the bundle only has one route: easyadmin. For the parameters, use a special variable called _request_parameters. This is something that EasyAdminBundle gives us, and it contains all of the query parameters. You'll see why that's cool in a minute.

But the most important thing is to add another query parameter called action set to export:

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
// ... lines 10 - 11
{% if easyadmin_action_is_enabled_for_list_view('export', _entity_config.name) %}
<div class="button-action">
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="{{ path('easyadmin', _request_parameters|merge({ action: 'export' })) }}">
// ... lines 16 - 17
</a>
</div>
{% endif %}
{% endblock global_actions %}

Oh boy, that's ugly. But, it works great: it generates a route to easyadmin where action is set to export and all the existing query parameters are maintained.

Phew! Inside, add a download icon and say "Export":

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
// ... lines 10 - 11
{% if easyadmin_action_is_enabled_for_list_view('export', _entity_config.name) %}
<div class="button-action">
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="{{ path('easyadmin', _request_parameters|merge({ action: 'export' })) }}">
<i class="fa fa-download"></i>
Export
</a>
</div>
{% endif %}
{% endblock global_actions %}

Try it! Woh! We have an export button... but nothing else. I love to forget the parent() call:

22 lines | app/Resources/views/easy_admin/list.html.twig
{% extends '@EasyAdmin/default/list.html.twig' %}
// ... lines 2 - 8
{% block global_actions %}
{{ parent() }}
{% if easyadmin_action_is_enabled_for_list_view('export', _entity_config.name) %}
<div class="button-action">
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="{{ path('easyadmin', _request_parameters|merge({ action: 'export' })) }}">
<i class="fa fa-download"></i>
Export
</a>
</div>
{% endif %}
{% endblock global_actions %}

Try it again. Beautiful!

When I click export, it of course looks for exportAction in our controller... in this case, GenusController.

Adding the Custom Action

Remember: we're not going to support this export action for all of our entities. And to make this error clearer, open AdminController - our base controller - and create a public function exportAction() that simply throws a new RuntimeException: "Action for exporting an entity is not defined":

14 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/AdminController.php
// ... lines 1 - 6
class AdminController extends BaseAdminController
{
public function exportAction()
{
throw new \RuntimeException('Action for exporting an entity not defined');
}
}

If we configure everything correctly, and implement this method for all entities that need it, we should never see this error. But... just in case.

Now, to the real work. To add an export for genus, we have two options. First, in AdminController, we could create a public function exportGenusAction(). Remember, whenever EasyAdminBundle calls any of our actions - even custom actions - it always looks for that specially named method: export<EntityName>Action(). Or, we can be a bit more organized, and create a custom controller for each entity. That's what we've done already. So, in GenusController, add public function exportAction():

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
// ... lines 37 - 53
}
}

Adding the CSV Export Logic

To save time, we've already done most of the work for the CSV export. If you downloaded the starting code, in the Service directory, you should have a CsvExporter class:

85 lines | src/AppBundle/Service/CsvExporter.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
namespace AppBundle\Service;
use AppBundle\Entity\Genus;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\StreamedResponse;
class CsvExporter
{
public function getResponseFromQueryBuilder(QueryBuilder $queryBuilder, $columns, $filename)
{
$entities = new ArrayCollection($queryBuilder->getQuery()->getResult());
$response = new StreamedResponse();
if (is_string($columns)) {
$columns = $this->getColumnsForEntity($columns);
}
$response->setCallback(function () use ($entities, $columns) {
$handle = fopen('php://output', 'w+');
// Add header
fputcsv($handle, array_keys($columns));
while ($entity = $entities->current()) {
$values = [];
foreach ($columns as $column => $callback) {
$value = $callback;
if (is_callable($callback)) {
$value = $callback($entity);
}
$values[] = $value;
}
fputcsv($handle, $values);
$entities->next();
}
fclose($handle);
});
$response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'text/csv; charset=utf-8');
$response->headers->set('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="' . $filename . '"');
return $response;
}
private function getColumnsForEntity($class)
{
// ... lines 56 - 82
}
}

Basically, we pass it a QueryBuilder, an array of column information, or the entity's class name - which is mapped to an array of column info thanks to this special function, and the filename we want. Then, it creates the CSV and returns it as a StreamedResponse. So all we need to do is call this method and return it from our controller!

I'll paste a little bit of code in the action to get us started:

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
$sortDirection = $this->request->query->get('sortDirection');
if (empty($sortDirection) || !in_array(strtoupper($sortDirection), ['ASC', 'DESC'])) {
$sortDirection = 'DESC';
}
// ... lines 41 - 53
}
}

When we created the export link, we kept the existing query parameters. That means we should have a sortDirection parameter... which is a nice way of making the export order match the list order.

To create the query builder, we can actually use a protected function on the base class called createListQueryBuilder():

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
$sortDirection = $this->request->query->get('sortDirection');
if (empty($sortDirection) || !in_array(strtoupper($sortDirection), ['ASC', 'DESC'])) {
$sortDirection = 'DESC';
}
$queryBuilder = $this->createListQueryBuilder(
// ... lines 43 - 46
);
// ... lines 48 - 53
}
}

Pass this the entity class, either Genus::class or $this->entity['class']... in case you want to make this method reusable across multiple entities:

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
// ... lines 37 - 41
$queryBuilder = $this->createListQueryBuilder(
$this->entity['class'],
// ... lines 44 - 46
);
// ... lines 48 - 53
}
}

Next, pass the sort direction and then the sort field: $this->request->query->get('sortField'):

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
// ... lines 37 - 41
$queryBuilder = $this->createListQueryBuilder(
$this->entity['class'],
$sortDirection,
$this->request->query->get('sortField'),
// ... line 46
);
// ... lines 48 - 53
}
}

Finally, pass in the dql_filter option: $this->entity['list']['dql_filter']:

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
// ... lines 37 - 41
$queryBuilder = $this->createListQueryBuilder(
$this->entity['class'],
$sortDirection,
$this->request->query->get('sortField'),
$this->entity['list']['dql_filter']
);
// ... lines 48 - 53
}
}

This is kind of cool. We're using the entity configuration array - which is always full of goodies - to actually read the list key and the dql_filter key below it. If we have a DQL filter on this entity, the CSV export will know about it!

Ok, finally, we're ready to use the CsvExporter class. Because I'm using the new Symfony 3.3 service configuration, the CsvExporter is already registered as a private service:

32 lines | app/config/services.yml
// ... lines 1 - 5
services:
# default configuration for services in *this* file
_defaults:
autowire: true
autoconfigure: true
public: false
AppBundle\:
resource: '../../src/AppBundle/*'
exclude: '../../src/AppBundle/{Entity,Repository,Tests}'
AppBundle\Controller\:
resource: '../../src/AppBundle/Controller'
public: true
tags: ['controller.service_arguments']
// ... lines 21 - 32

Using DI in a Fake Action

The Symfony 3.3 way of accessing a service from a controller is as an argument to the action. But... remember: this is not a real action. I mean, it's not called by the normal core, Symfony controller system. Nope, it's called by EasyAdminBundle... and none of the normal controller argument tricks work. You can't type-hint the Request or any services.

Because of this, we're going to use classic dependency injection. We can do this because this controller - well any controller if you're using the Symfony 3.3 configuration - is registered as a service. Add a __construct() function and type-hint the CsvExporter class. I'll press Alt+Enter to create a property and set it:

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 5
use AppBundle\Service\CsvExporter;
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
private $csvExporter;
public function __construct(CsvExporter $csvExporter)
{
$this->csvExporter = $csvExporter;
}
// ... lines 16 - 54
}

Back down below, just return $this->csvExporter->getResponseFromQueryBuilder() and pass it the $queryBuilder, Genus::class, and genuses.csv - the filename:

56 lines | src/AppBundle/Controller/EasyAdmin/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class GenusController extends AdminController
{
// ... lines 10 - 34
public function exportAction()
{
// ... lines 37 - 41
$queryBuilder = $this->createListQueryBuilder(
// ... lines 43 - 46
);
return $this->csvExporter->getResponseFromQueryBuilder(
$queryBuilder,
Genus::class,
'genuses.csv'
);
}
}

Deep breath... refresh! It downloaded! Ha! In my terminal. I'll:

cat ~/Downloads/genuses.csv

There it is!

Hiding the Extra

There's just one last problem: on the list page... we still have those weird export links on each row. That's technically fine... but it's super confusing. The only reason we added this export action was so that it would be a valid action to call:

159 lines | app/config/config.yml
// ... lines 1 - 80
easy_admin:
// ... lines 82 - 94
list:
// ... line 96
actions: ['show', 'export']
// ... lines 98 - 159

Unfortunately, this also gave us those links!

No worries, we just need to hide that link manually... and we already have a filter to do this! Open EasyAdminExtension and filterActions(). Now, just unset $itemActions['export']. That looks a little crazy, so I'll add a comment: "This action is rendered manually":

44 lines | src/AppBundle/Twig/EasyAdminExtension.php
// ... lines 1 - 27
public function filterActions(array $itemActions, $item)
{
// ... lines 30 - 37
// export action is rendered by us manually
unset($itemActions['export']);
// ... lines 40 - 41
}
}

Try it! Yes! We have the export button on top... but not on each row. This is a tricky - but valid - use-case for custom actions.