Merge pull request SpartnerNL#449 from maddhatter/string-export

Ability to export as a string

Author: patrickbrouwers

src/Maatwebsite/Excel/Writers/LaravelExcelWriter.php

@@ -283,6 +283,32 @@ public function download($ext = 'xls', Array $headers = array())
         $this->export($ext, $headers);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Return the spreadsheet file as a string
+     * @param  string $ext
+     * @return string
+     * @throws LaravelExcelException
+     */
+    public function string($ext = 'xls')
+    {
+        // Set the extension
+        $this->ext = $ext;
+
+        // Render the file
+        $this->_render();
+
+        // Check if writer isset
+        if (!$this->writer)
+            throw new LaravelExcelException('[ERROR] No writer was set.');
+
+        //Capture the content as a string and return it
+        ob_start();
+
+        $this->writer->save('php://output');
+
+        return ob_get_clean();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Download a file
      * @param array $headers