Laravel Excel , exporting from a model, styling issues

Question

I am trying to export some data from my model to excel scheet with "Laravel excel", I have done it, but my result is far away from what I really need

That is what I`ve got in downloaded file:

And that is what i really want to accomplish:

My controller part:

//casting export...
        Excel::create('ExcelExport', function($excel) use($filters, $agents) {

            $main_arr = array();

            foreach($agents as $value){                 
                $main_arr[] = Card::cardForUser($value, $filters)->toArray();                   
            }

            $excel->sheet('Sheetshit', function($sheet) use($main_arr) {
                //You may ask me "why are you using foreach?"
                // and my answer will be:"I don`t KNOW, because it WORKS!"

                foreach($main_arr as $one){
                    $sheet->fromArray($one);
                }

            });

        })->export('xls');

Model part:

public static  function  cardForUser($user_id, $filters = array()){
        $query = static::UserId($user_id);//just gets 'where user id'

        foreach($filters['fields'] as $select){
            $query->addSelect($select);
        }
            return $query->get();
    }    

    public function scopeUserId($query, $user_id) {
        return $query->where('user_id', '=', $user_id);

    }

$filters array consist of fields names from DB, so it basically decides which columns include in export. That means that my $main_arr may have length of inner fields from 1 to 5. Every agent can have a lot of rows in DB or none at all

Example of $main_arr dump with 4 filters set:

 array (size=8)
  0 => 
    array (size=10)

//thats will be first agent
          0 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chrysler' (length=8)
              'ts_model' => string 'PT CRUISER' (length=10)
          1 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Opel' (length=4)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corsa' (length=5)
          2 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Dodge' (length=5)
              'ts_model' => string 'Stratus' (length=7)
          3 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Р’РђР—' (length=6)
              'ts_model' => string '2112' (length=4)
          4 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Mercedes-Benz' (length=13)
              'ts_model' => string 'E 270' (length=5)
          5 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Р’РђР—' (length=6)
              'ts_model' => string '21140 LADA SAMARA' (length=17)
          6 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'LADA' (length=4)
              'ts_model' => string '213100 LADA 4С…4' (length=16)
          7 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Р’РђР—' (length=6)
              'ts_model' => string '21110' (length=5)
          8 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Lanos' (length=5)
          9 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'VOLKSWAGEN' (length=10)
              'ts_model' => string 'PASSAT' (length=6)
//thats will be second agent
      1 => 
        array (size=10)
          0 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Mercedes' (length=8)
              'ts_model' => string 'Benz' (length=4)
          1 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corvette' (length=8)
          2 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corvette' (length=8)
          3 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corvette' (length=8)
          4 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corvette' (length=8)
          5 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Chevrolet' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'Corvette' (length=8)
          6 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Mazeratti' (length=9)
              'ts_model' => string 'M4' (length=2)
          7 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
              'ts_model' => string 'F4' (length=2)
          8 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Mazda' (length=5)
              'ts_model' => string '5' (length=1)
          9 => 
            array (size=4)
              'date_start' => string '06.08.2014 10:00:00' (length=19)
              'ts_category' => int 2
              'ts_make' => string 'Test' (length=4)
              'ts_model' => string 'Test' (length=4)
        etc...

Sooo... my questions are:

1. How do I set main title ("Header stuff" in example img)?
2. why do I have my columns headers(date_start, ts_category,ts_make,ts_model) disappear in first array element? (You can see at the first img that I don't have "date start" and "ts_category" headers for first sub-array. BTW sometimes I don`t have headers at all for first sub-array!)
3. Can I make my sub-array's headers bold(ts_make, etc)? How?
4. How can I make sub-titles for every agent(I planning to use sub-array key to display a number of agent)?

---

UPDATE Posted working code as answer.

Answer 1

I won't answer all your questions because you will need to look at documentation on your own. However I will show you how to get such effect:

and I think it will help you more than explaining what you did wrong

The code for above excel file is below:

Excel::create('ExcelExport', function ($excel) {

    $excel->sheet('Sheetname', function ($sheet) {

        // first row styling and writing content
        $sheet->mergeCells('A1:W1');
        $sheet->row(1, function ($row) {
            $row->setFontFamily('Comic Sans MS');
            $row->setFontSize(30);
        });

        $sheet->row(1, array('Some big header here'));

        // second row styling and writing content
        $sheet->row(2, function ($row) {

            // call cell manipulation methods
            $row->setFontFamily('Comic Sans MS');
            $row->setFontSize(15);
            $row->setFontWeight('bold');

        });

        $sheet->row(2, array('Something else here'));

        // getting data to display - in my case only one record
        $users = User::get()->toArray();

        // setting column names for data - you can of course set it manually
        $sheet->appendRow(array_keys($users[0])); // column names

        // getting last row number (the one we already filled and setting it to bold
        $sheet->row($sheet->getHighestRow(), function ($row) {
            $row->setFontWeight('bold');
        });

        // putting users data as next rows
        foreach ($users as $user) {
            $sheet->appendRow($user);
        }
    });

})->export('xls');

Answer 2

1. How do I set main title ("Header stuff" in example img)?

   Look at documentation, it's very easy:

   $sheet->prependRow(1, array(
       'Example header'
       ))->cell('A1', function($cell) {
           $cell->setFontWeight('bold');
           $cell->setFontSize(18);
   });
   

2. Can I make my sub-array's headers bold(ts_make, etc)? How?

   Count what rows must be bolded:

   $count = 2;
   foreach($main_arr as $one){
       $sheet->fromArray($one, null, 'A2');
   
       $sheet->row($count, function($row) {
           $row->setFontWeight('bold');
       });
       $count += count( $one ) + 1;
   }
   

3. How can I make sub-titles for every agent(I planning to use sub-arraykey to display a number of agent)?

   In a similar way as above :)