Laravel create invoice document using PHPWord

4 min readDec 13, 2020

Phpword is a php library that provides the ability to read from and write to different document file formats. In this case I will be creating a formatted word document.

This is an image of what we are trying to create:

Create a base project:

laravel new phpword_democd phpword_demophp artisan serve

Create the controller:

php artisan make:Controller ExportController

Add the route to web.php:

Route::get('/export', [ExportController::class, 'export']);

*I am using a Laravel 8 project. Older versions may have a different syntax.

Have a look at the requirements https://phpword.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing.html#requirements and follow the installation.

I installed the package this way:

composer require phpoffice/phpword

Then I set up some fake data:

$businessName = 'Hardware store';
$subtitleLine1 = 'Jill Simpson';
$subtitleLine2 = '57 Central Park, New York';
$subtitleLine3 = 'Tel 04316034877';$customerName = 'Fred Allington';
$address = '1028 Long Lane, New York';$items = [
    [
        'name' => 'hammer',
        'price' => '5.37',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'nails',
        'price' => '3.65',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'drill',
        'price' => '55.46',
    ],
];

I’ll export the file to storage/app:

//beginning of method
$pathToFile = storage_path('app/exportedfile.docx');//end - when we're finished writing to the file:
$writer = IOFactory::createWriter($phpWord, 'Word2007');
$writer->save($pathToFile);

Now we can concentrate on writing the data to the file and formatting.

I set up some document properties:

$phpWord = new \\PhpOffice\\PhpWord\\PhpWord();$properties = $phpWord->getDocInfo();
$properties->setCreator('Paul');
$properties->setCompany('Orange Juice Factory');
$properties->setTitle('Purchase invoice');$phpWord->setDefaultFontName('Arial');

And then added some styles to use throughout the document:

$title = array('size' => 24, 'bold' => false);
$subtitle = array('size' => 14, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '85837f');
$subtitleSecondary = array('size' => 11, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '85837f');
$heading = array('size' => 14, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '65676B');
$fullLineHorizontalRule = array('weight' => 0, 'width' => 450, 'height' => 0);
$customerTableStyle = array('cellMargin' => 80, 'alignment' => JcTable::START);
$itemsTableStyle =array('borderSize' => 4, 'borderColor' => '85837f', 'cellMargin' => 80, 'alignment' => JcTable::START);

For the first part of the document — title and store data:

$section = $phpWord->addSection();
$phpWord->addParagraphStyle('pStyleCenter', array('align' => Jc::CENTER));$section->addText($businessName, $title, 'pStyleCenter');
$section->addText($subtitleLine1, $subtitle, 'pStyleCenter');
$section->addText($subtitleLine2, $subtitle, 'pStyleCenter');
$section->addText($subtitleLine3, $subtitleSecondary, 'pStyleCenter');$section->addTextBreak(1);
$section->addLine($fullLineHorizontalRule);
$section->addTextBreak(1);

The document will only have 1 section, we want to center the text and apply different fonts and styles to the headings.

For the ‘Customer Details’:

$customerTableHeading = 'Customer';$phpWord->addTableStyle($customerTableHeading, $customerTableStyle);$section->addText('Customer Details', $heading);
$table = $section->addTable($customerTableHeading);$table->addRow(500);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText("Name:");
$table->addCell(2200)->addText($customerName);
$table->addRow();
$table->addCell(1750)->addText("Address:");
$table->addCell(4000)->addText($address);$section->addTextBreak(1);
$section->addTextBreak(1);
$section->addLine($fullLineHorizontalRule);
$section->addTextBreak(1);

We add a table with no border and we read this table horizontally to display the customer details.

For the ‘Items’:

$itemsTableHeading = 'Items';$phpWord->addTableStyle($itemsTableHeading, $itemsTableStyle);$section->addText('Items', $heading);
$table = $section->addTable($itemsTableHeading);
$table->addRow(500);
$table->addCell(1750)->addText('Item', array('bold' => true));
$table->addCell(1750)->addText('Price', array('bold' => true));foreach ($items as $item)
{
    $table->addRow(500);
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText($item['name']);
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText('$' . $item['price']);
}

We introduce a border for this table and read vertically — iterating through the items to display the name and price.

The complete method:

public function export()
{
    $businessName = 'Hardware store';
    $subtitleLine1 = 'Jill Simpson';
    $subtitleLine2 = '57 Central Park, New York';
    $subtitleLine3 = 'Tel 04316034877';    $customerName = 'Fred Allington';
    $address = '1028 Long Lane, New York';    $items = [
        [
            'name' => 'hammer',
            'price' => '5.37',
        ],
        [
            'name' => 'nails',
            'price' => '3.65',
        ],
        [
            'name' => 'drill',
            'price' => '55.46',
        ],
    ];    $pathToFile = storage_path('app/exportedfile.docx');    $phpWord = new \\PhpOffice\\PhpWord\\PhpWord();    $properties = $phpWord->getDocInfo();
    $properties->setCreator('Paul');
    $properties->setCompany('Orange Juice Factory');
    $properties->setTitle('Purchase invoice');    $phpWord->setDefaultFontName('Arial');    $title = array('size' => 24, 'bold' => false);
    $subtitle = array('size' => 14, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '85837f');
    $subtitleSecondary = array('size' => 11, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '85837f');
    $heading = array('size' => 14, 'bold' => false, 'color' => '65676B');
    $fullLineHorizontalRule = array('weight' => 0, 'width' => 450, 'height' => 0);
    $customerTableStyle = array('cellMargin' => 80, 'alignment' => JcTable::START);
    $itemsTableStyle =array('borderSize' => 4, 'borderColor' => '85837f', 'cellMargin' => 80, 'alignment' => JcTable::START);    //start building document
    $section = $phpWord->addSection();
    $phpWord->addParagraphStyle('pStyleCenter', array('align' => Jc::CENTER));    $section->addText($businessName, $title, 'pStyleCenter');
    $section->addText($subtitleLine1, $subtitle, 'pStyleCenter');
    $section->addText($subtitleLine2, $subtitle, 'pStyleCenter');
    $section->addText($subtitleLine3, $subtitleSecondary, 'pStyleCenter');    $section->addTextBreak(1);
    $section->addLine($fullLineHorizontalRule);
    $section->addTextBreak(1);    //add customer table
    $customerTableHeading = 'Customer';    $phpWord->addTableStyle($customerTableHeading, $customerTableStyle);    $section->addText('Customer Details', $heading);
    $table = $section->addTable($customerTableHeading);    $table->addRow(500);
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText("Name:");
    $table->addCell(2200)->addText($customerName);
    $table->addRow();
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText("Address:");
    $table->addCell(4000)->addText($address);    $section->addTextBreak(1);
    $section->addTextBreak(1);
    $section->addLine($fullLineHorizontalRule);
    $section->addTextBreak(1);    //items table
    $itemsTableHeading = 'Items';    $phpWord->addTableStyle($itemsTableHeading, $itemsTableStyle);    $section->addText('Items', $heading);
    $table = $section->addTable($itemsTableHeading);
    $table->addRow(500);
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText('Item', array('bold' => true));
    $table->addCell(1750)->addText('Price', array('bold' => true));    foreach ($items as $item)
    {
        $table->addRow(500);
        $table->addCell(1750)->addText($item['name']);
        $table->addCell(1750)->addText('$' . $item['price']);
    }		$footer = $section->addFooter();
    $footer->addPreserveText('Page {PAGE} of {NUMPAGES}.', null, array('alignment' => \\PhpOffice\\PhpWord\\SimpleType\\Jc::CENTER));
    $footer->addLink('<https://paulreaney.medium.com/>', 'PHPWord demo');    $writer = IOFactory::createWriter($phpWord, 'Word2007');
    $writer->save($pathToFile);    return 'Exported the file.';
}

Hopefully this helps somebody!

Laravel create invoice document using PHPWord

Written by Paul

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