[QUESTION] Confusion About ToCollection concerns?

[nickpoulos]

Prerequisites

Versions

• PHP version: 7.1.2
• Laravel version: 5.7.1
• Package version: 3.1.0

Description

The import functionality is not intuitive how it is all supposed to work together, and not documented well enough to alleviate the lack of intuition. I am confused as to what the point of a ToCollection concern is exactly?

I tried to setup a very simple toCollection import. I don't want the items actually stored in a database at the time of Excel file reading because I need to sum and run calculations on the data first, then pass it off to other objects that actually handle the importing and logging. I don't want a mega import class.
So I setup a simple Import using the toCollection concern, like so:

<?php

namespace App\Services\Revenue\ExcelImports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class KargoImport implements ToCollection
{
    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        return $rows->transform(function($row) {
           return [
               'date' => $row[0],
               'site' => $row[1],
               'impressions' => $row[2],
               'revenue' => $row[3]
           ];
        });
    }
}

Then I tried to import using:

$records = Excel::import(new KargoImport(), $filePath);

Which returns a MaatWebsiteExcel object that I can't seem to access the collection of data. And not even that, I stuck a DD in my collection() method of KargoImport, and the function doesn't even get hit?

So instead I tried:

$records = Excel::toCollection(new KargoImport(), $filePath);

That at least returned my data, but again, it was not run through the collections() function at all.

I get the same exact results when I pass in a null importer like so:

$records = Excel::toCollection(null, $filePath);

So that tells me for my purposes, the Importer is useless? But it doesn't seem it should be? I would think the first example, using the Excel::import() function with a ToCollection importer as param, would return the collection of rows already run through the Importer->collection() method. This would also allow me to use the other functions/traits for chunking reads and other functionality.

Additional Information

None

[patrickbrouwers]

Import objects are there to encapsulate your import logic. You can add a lot of behaviour by using the other concerns.

Excel::toCollection() is a helper for people that want to have the entire collection where they want it. (e.g. controller).

using the Excel::import() function with a ToCollection importer as param, would return the collection of rows already run through the Importer->collection() method.

If you use ToCollection concern, you get the imported collection inside the collection() method. ::import() doesn't return the collection, it delegates the import action to the import object.

You have to use either ToCollection concern or ::toCollection() helper method. They are not meant to be combined.

I think the ToCollection documentation (https://laravel-excel.maatwebsite.nl/3.1/imports/collection.html) demonstrates the usage of it quite okay. The collection() method gets a Collection of all rows that are imported, you can then loop through them and e.g. insert them in the database.

[vesper8]

@patrickbrouwers So how then do you actually accomplish what @nickpoulos wanted to do and what I want to do.

Which is to call a method that returns a collection that's been put through a transformer first and that's it, no models involved, just return a transformed collection from a .csv file.. seems like a simple enough task that this package should be able to handle easily

[vesper8]

phew.. managed to get something working

in my controller:

        $import = new MyImport();
        Excel::import($import, $csvFile);
        dd($import->collection);

MyImport.php:

<?php

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class MyImport implements ToCollection
{
    public $collection;

    public function collection(Collection $collection)
    {
        $this->collection = $collection->transform(function ($row) {
            return [
                'rank' => $row[0],
                'name' => $row[1],
            ];
        });
    }
}

[Rsagrawals]

@patrickbrouwers i am trying to use skierrors and skipfailure traits with tocollection but its not working. But with toModel its working fine. how can i skip errors in toCollection and collect them in the last?