How do I redirect after download in Laravel?

Question

I'm using maatwebsite/excel library to create excel files then download my file.

In my controller I do like this:

  public function todas()
    {
        $input = Input::all();

        if(isset($input['todos'])&&($input['todos']!=0))
        {
            set_time_limit(0);
            $datainicio = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $input['todos'])->pluck('periodo_inicio'); 
            $datafinal  = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $input['todos'])->pluck('periodo_fim');
            $mes  = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $input['todos'])->pluck('mes_referencia'); 

            $horarioQuery = $this->horario->with(array('funcionario', 'item_contabil'))
                                 ->whereBetween('data', array($datainicio, $datafinal))
                                 ->whereNull('deleted_at')
                                 ->orderBy('cod_funcionario')
                                 ->orderBy('data', 'ASC')
                                 ->get();

            $horarios = reset($horarioQuery);
            
            $count  = count($horarios);

            if($horarios==null)
                return Redirect::route('relatorios.todas')->withErrors(['não existem marcações para este período']);

            $funcionarios = $this->funcionario->all();

            $datainicio  = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $datainicio); 
            $datafinal   = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $datafinal);

            $nome = 'Marcações'.$mes.'-'.Carbon::now()->year;
            $this->horario->allToExcel($nome, $horarios);

            return View::make('relatorios.todashow', compact('funcionarios', 'datainicio', 'datafinal', 'horarios', 'count', 'nome'));
        }
        else
        {
            return Redirect::route('relatorios.todas')->withErrors(['Selecione um período!']);
        }
    }

That is my function to generate excel file :

public static function allToExcel($nome, $horarios)
    {   
            Excel::create($nome , function ($excel) use ($horarios) {

            $excel->sheet('Marcações', function ($sheet) use ($horarios) {

                $sheet->row(1, array(

                            'Unidade',
                            'Nome',
                            'Função',
                            'Data',
                            'Hora Faturada',
                            'Hora Contratada',
                            'Horas Trabalhadas',
                            'Horas Extras',
                            'Tempo Exposicao',
                            'Atividade',
                            'Item Contabil',
                            'Observacoes'
                        ));

                $sheet->row(1, function($row) {
                    $row->setBackground('#2A8005');
                    $row->setFontColor('#ffffff');
                    $row->setFontWeight('bold');
                });

                $i = 2;
                foreach ($horarios as $horario) {
                        
                        if($horario->funcionario->funcao_qt != null)
                            $funcao = $horario->funcionario->funcao_qt;
                        else   
                            $funcao = $horario->funcionario->funcao_a5;
        
                        $sheet->row($i, array(
                            $horario->unidade,
                            $horario->funcionario->nome,
                            $funcao,
                            $horario->data->format('d/m/Y'),
                            $horario->hora_faturada->format('H:i'),
                            $horario->hora_contratada,
                            $horario->getWorkedHours()->format('H:i'),
                            $horario->getExtraHours()->format('H:i'),
                            $horario->tempo_exposicao ?: "-",
                            $horario->atividade,
                            $horario->item_contabil->CTD_DESC01,
                            $horario->observacoes
                        ));
                        if($i % 2 != 0)
                        {
                        $sheet->row($i, function($row) {
                            $row->setBackground('#D1D1D1');
                            });
                        }    
                
                        $i++;
                    }
            });

            })->download('xls');
    }

But after I download the excel file I cant redirect to a route or view and I Also tried to use:

Routes:

Route::post('relatorios/todas', array('as' => 'relatorios.todas', 'after' => 'voltar', 'uses' => 'ReportsController@todas'));

Filter:

Route::filter('voltar', function()
{
    return Redirect::back()->with('message', '<p class="bg-success"><b>Relatório gerado com sucesso</b></p>');
});

But it didn't work anyway, is there another way to redirect after downloading my file?

Answer 1

It cannot be done. The problem is that if you send a download instruction to the user browser, you are, as a matter of fact, sending a response and you can send only one response back.

What you could do is to, first redirect your user to the "final" page and in that page start the download. The code would be something like:

Session::flash('download.in.the.next.request', 'filetodownload.pdf');

return Redirect::to('/whatever/page');

Then in your new page you'll have some options:

• HTML: [meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;url=http://watever.com/create_csv.php"]
• Javascript: location.href = 'http://watever.com/create_csv.php';
• iframe: [iframe src="create_csv.php"][/iframe]

So you can in your layout do something like:

<html>
  <head>
      @if(Session::has('download.in.the.next.request'))
         <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;url={{ Session::get('download.in.the.next.request') }}">
      @endif
   <head>

   <body>
      ...
   </body>
</html>

Also, take a look at this answer: PHP generate file for download then redirect

Answer 2

that worked

I gave up from using ajax and just tried with routes

Route::get('relatorios/exportar/{cod}', array('as' => 'relatorios.exportar', 'uses' => 'ReportsController@exportar'));

my controller

 public function exportar($cod)
    {   
        set_time_limit(0);
        $datainicio = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $cod)->pluck('periodo_inicio'); 
        $datafinal  = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $cod)->pluck('periodo_fim');
        $mes  = DB::table('tb_periodo')->where('cod', $cod)->pluck('mes_referencia'); 

        $horarioQuery = $this->horario->with(array('funcionario', 'item_contabil'))
                            ->whereBetween('data', array($datainicio, $datafinal))
                            ->whereNull('deleted_at')
                            ->orderBy('cod_funcionario')
                            ->orderBy('data', 'ASC')
                            ->get();

        $horarios = reset($horarioQuery);

        $nome = 'Marcações'.$mes.'-'.Carbon::now()->year;

        $this->horario->allToExcel($nome, $horarios);
    }

view:

 {{ link_to_route('relatorios.exportar', 'Exportar para excel', array($cod), array('class' => 'btn btn-success')) }}

that's solved for me, because dont load another page and download the correct file. thx for the help!!