This simple plugin gives you the ability to call to_xls to a collection of array for Rails. Array element support object: ActiveRecord, Mongid, Hash.

In your Gemfile:

gem 'to_xls-rails'# Last officially released gem
# gem "to_xls-rails", :git => "git://github.com/liangwenke/to_xls-rails.git" # Track git repo

or, to install as a gem:

gem install to_xls-rails

or, to install as a plugin:

rails plugin install git://github.com/liangwenke/to_xls-rails.git

In your controller:

def index
  @posts = Post.all

  respond_to do |format|
    format.html # don't forget if you pass html
    format.xls { send_data(@posts.to_xls) }
    # format.xls {
    #   filename = "Posts-#{Time.now.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")}.xls"
    #   send_data(@posts.to_xls, :type => "text/xls; charset=utf-8; header=present", :filename => filename)
    # }
  end
end

In your view:

<%= link_to 'Excel Download', posts_path(:format => :xls) %>

add below to RAILS_ROOT/config/initializers/mime_types.rb
Mime::Type.register_alias "text/excel", :xls

@posts = Post.all

#
# default are export header and all fileds
#

@posts.to_xls
@posts.to_xls(:only => [:title, :body])
@posts.to_xls(:except => [:id])
@posts.to_xls(:header => false)

# Array of Hashes support
[ { name: 'ruby', version: '2.1.0' }, { name: 'rails', version: '4.1.0' } ].to_xls

# Will prepend above header
# | Col 0, Row 0 | Col 1, Row 0 |
# | Col 0, Row 1 |              |
@posts.to_xls(:prepend => [["Col 0, Row 0", "Col 1, Row 0"], ["Col 0, Row 1"]])

# Translation of a column-value
@posts.to_xls{|column, value, row_index| column==:salutation ? t(value) + " at #{row_index}" : value}

# Added width options
@posts.to_xls(:column_width => [17,15,15,40,25,37])

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @posts = Post.all

    respond_to do |format|
      format.xls { send_data(@posts.to_xls) }
      # format.xls {
      #   filename = "posts-#{Time.now.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")}.xls"
      #   send_data(@posts.to_xls, :type => "application/excel; charset=utf-8; header=present", :filename => filename)
      # }
    end
  end
end

Works on Rails 3:

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    # add this to config/initializers/mime_types.rb
    Mime::Type.register "application/vnd.ms-excel", :xls

    @posts = Post.all

    respond_to do |format|
      format.xls {
        send_data @posts.to_xls
        return # prevet Rails to seek for index.xls.erb
      }
    end
  end
end

• Juan Pablo Marzetti

• Denis Yagofarov

• MrCherry

• Andreas König

• nikneroz

• Gordon B. Isnor

Copyright © 2010 liangwenke.com@gmail.com, released under the MIT license