How to export Excel files from an ABP Blazor application

Introduction

In this article, I will show you how can export data to an Excel file from the ABP framework.

Source Code

The sample application has been developed with Blazor as the UI framework and SQL Server as the database provider.

The source code of the completed application is available on GitHub.

Requirements

The following tools are needed to be able to run the solution.

• .NET 8.0 SDK
• VsCode, Visual Studio 2022 or another compatible IDE
• ABP 8.0.0

Development

Create a new Application

• Install or update the ABP CLI:

dotnet tool install -g Volo.Abp.Cli || dotnet tool update -g Volo.Abp.Cli

• Use the following ABP CLI command:

abp new AbpToExcel -u blazor -o AbpToExcel

Open & Run the Application

• Open the solution in Visual Studio (or your favorite IDE).
• Run the AbpToExcel.DbMigrator application to seed the initial data.
• Run the AbpToExcel.HttpApi.Host application that starts the API.
• Run the AbpToExcel.Blazor application to start the UI.

Create the ExportToExcelAppService ApplicationService

• Create a new folder ExcelExport in the Application.Contracts project.

• Add a new IExportToExcelAppService.cs file to the ExcelExport folder with following content.

using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Volo.Abp.Application.Services;

namespace AbpToExcel.ExcelExport
{
    public interface IExportToExcelAppService :  IApplicationService
    {
        Task<byte[]> ExportToExcel();
    }
}

• Open a command prompt in the Application project and run the following command to install the necessary NuGet packages.

    dotnet add package documentformat.openxml

• Create a new ExcelExport folder in the Application project.

• Add a new file ExcelFileGenerator.cs to the ExcelExport folder and copy/paste code below.

using System.IO;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet;

namespace AbpToExcel.ExcelExport
{
    public static class ExcelFileGenerator
    {
        public static byte[] GenerateExcelFile()
        {
            var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

            using var document = SpreadsheetDocument.Create(memoryStream, SpreadsheetDocumentType.Workbook);
            var workbookPart = document.AddWorkbookPart();
            workbookPart.Workbook = new Workbook();

            var worksheetPart = workbookPart.AddNewPart<WorksheetPart>();
            worksheetPart.Worksheet = new Worksheet(new SheetData());

            var sheets = workbookPart.Workbook.AppendChild(new Sheets());

            sheets.AppendChild(new Sheet
            {
                Id = workbookPart.GetIdOfPart(worksheetPart),
                SheetId = 1,
                Name = "Sheet 1"
            });

            var sheetData = worksheetPart.Worksheet.GetFirstChild<SheetData>();

            var row1 = new Row();
            row1.AppendChild(
                new Cell
                {
                    CellValue = new CellValue("Abp Framework"),
                    DataType = CellValues.String
                }

            );
            
            sheetData?.AppendChild(row1);

            var row2 = new Row();
            row2.AppendChild(
                new Cell
                {
                    CellValue = new CellValue("Open Source"),
                    DataType = CellValues.String
                }
            );
            sheetData?.AppendChild(row2);

            var row3 = new Row();
            row3.AppendChild(
                new Cell
                {
                    CellValue = new CellValue("WEB APPLICATION FRAMEWORK"),
                    DataType = CellValues.String
                }
            );
            sheetData?.AppendChild(row3);

            document.Save();

            return memoryStream.ToArray();
        }
    }
}

• Add a new ExportToExcelAppService.cs file to the Application project and copy/paste the code below.

using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Volo.Abp.Application.Services;
using static AbpToExcel.ExcelExport.ExcelFileGenerator;

namespace AbpToExcel.ExcelExport
{
    public class ExportToExcelAppService : ApplicationService, IExportToExcelAppService
    {
        public Task<byte[]> ExportToExcel() => Task.FromResult(GenerateExcelFile());
    }
}

Run the HttpApi.Host application to see the export-to-excel endpoint in SwaggerUI.

Some JavaScript to download Excel files

• Create a js folder to the wwwwroot folder of the Blazor project.

• Add an exporttoexcel.js file to the js folder and copy/paste the code below.

function saveAsFile(filename, bytesBase64) {
    var link = document.createElement('a');
    link.download = filename;
    link.href = 'data:application/octet-stream;base64,' + bytesBase64;
    document.body.appendChild(link); // Needed for Firefox
    link.click();
    document.body.removeChild(link);
}

• Open the index.html file in the wwwroot folder of the Blazor project and add this line of code at the end.

<script src="js/exporttoexcel.js"></script>

Call the IExportToExcelAppService from the Blazor project

• Replace the content in the index.razor file with the following code.

@page "/"
@using AbpToExcel.ExcelExport
@inject IExportToExcelAppService ExportToExcelAppService
@inject IJSRuntime JsRuntime

<Row Class="d-flex px-0 mx-0 mb-1">
    <Button Clicked="@(ExportToExcel)" class="p-0 ml-auto mr-2" style="background-color: transparent"
            title="Download">
        <span class="fa fa-file-excel fa-lg m-0" style="color: #008000; background-color: white;"
              aria-hidden="true">
        </span>
        Click Me!
    </Button>
</Row>

@code {
    private async Task ExportToExcel()
    {
        var excelBytes = await ExportToExcelAppService.ExportToExcel();
        await JsRuntime.InvokeVoidAsync("saveAsFile", $"test_{DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss")}.xlsx",
            Convert.ToBase64String(excelBytes));
    }
}

Start both the Blazor and theHttpApi.Hostproject to run the application

Run both the HttpApi.Host and Blazor applications and test the export to Excel file function.

Get the source code on GitHub.

Enjoy and have fun!