Sending CsvView output as an email attachment

Need Help
1

Hi there,

I’ve been using CsvView for some time now and it’s great for downloading CSV files on demand. I now need to create a cronjob which sends the output from CsvView as an email attachment.

I’ve not yet got my head around how I get CsvView working from a Shell, instead I’m focusing on creating a controller/action which sends CsvView output as an attachment.

I’ve got that working with the following code (CakePHP 2.x):

$this->response->download('enquiries_export.csv');
$_serialize = 'csvData';
$this->viewClass = 'CsvView.Csv';
$this->set(compact('csvData' ,'_serialize', '_header', '_extract'));

$this->autoRender = false;
$response = $this->render();

$email = new CakeEmail();
$email->from($from)
	->to($to)
	->subject('CSV Export')
	->template('bookings_csv')
	->emailFormat('text')
	->attachments(array(
		'bookings.csv' => array(
		  'data' => $response,
		  'mimetype' => 'text/csv'
		)
	))
	->theme($this->theme);
	}

The only issue with this is when I call this action, it is sending the email AND downloading the CSV file. I there a way to only send the email with the attachment?

Also, any tips on how I can then get CsvView working from a Shell called by a cronjob would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks, Paul.

2

As ever, persistence is the key … here’s my working solution

App::uses('CakeRequest', 'Network');
App::uses('CakeResponse', 'Network');
App::uses('MyController', 'Plugin.Controller');
$controller = new MyController(new CakeRequest(), new CakeResponse());
    
$controller->CsvView = $controller->Components->load('CsvView.CsvView');
$controller->CsvView->startup($controller);

$csvData = $this->Model->find('all', array(
  'contain' => array()
));

$_extract = $controller->CsvView->prepareExtractFromFindResults($csvData);
$customHeaders = array(
  'Model.field1' => 'Column1',
  'Model.field2' => 'Column2',
  ...,
);
$_header = $controller->CsvView->prepareHeaderFromExtract($_extract, $customHeaders);

$controller->response->download('csv_export.csv');
$_serialize = 'csvData';
$controller->viewClass = 'CsvView.Csv';
$controller->set(compact('csvData' ,'_serialize', '_header', '_extract'));

$controller->autoRender = false;
$response = $controller->render();

$email = new CakeEmail();
$email->from($from)
	->to($to)
	->subject($subject)
	->template('csv_export')
	->emailFormat('text')
	->attachments(array(
		'export.csv' => array(
		  'data' => $response,
		  'mimetype' => 'text/csv'
		)
	))
	->theme($controller->theme);
$email->send();

I don’t know if I really needed to do all of the App::uses() calls to get the controller and view logic working so any tips on how to improve this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Paul.