In Q3 2014 release of our Kendo UI, we added one of the most sought out feature in the Grid. Exporting grid data was one of the top ask feature for Kendo UI Grid. We are happy to say that with the Q3 release Kendo UI Grid now supports exporting to Excel or PDF document out of the box. In this blog post we will take a look at how to use the Excel export feature of the Kendo UI Grid.

Creating a Grid:

First we will create a simple Kendo UI Grid. I will connect to one of our demo service which is based on Northwind database. I will use the Products table and display Product Name, Units on Order and Units in Stock and will have a page size of 7. Here is the code snippet for the grid:

<div id="grid"></div>
<script>
    $("#grid").kendoGrid({
        dataSource: {
            type: "odata",
            transport: {
                read: "http://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/service/Northwind.svc/Products"
            },
            pageSize: 7
        },
        sortable: true,
        pageable: true,
        columns: [
            { width: 300, field: "ProductName", title: "Product Name" },
            { field: "UnitsOnOrder", title: "Units On Order" },
            { field: "UnitsInStock", title: "Units In Stock" }
        ]
    });
</script>

And here is the output of the above code snippet:

Providing Export Option on the Grid:

Before we proceed with enabling the export to excel option of the grid, there is one prerequisite that needs to be taken care of. Excel Export relies on a JavaScript library called “jszip”. This library needs to be referenced before Kendo UI JavaScript reference. JSZip is part of the Kendo UI distribution and is also available via the Kendo UI CDN:

<script src=”http://cdn.kendostatic.com/2014.3.1029/js/jszip.min.js”></script&gt;

Kendo UI Grid provides one of the easiest way to configure the export button options. If you have used Kendo UI Grid before, you will be familiar with the concept of Toolbars on Grid. We have provided a simple command which can be used in toolbar and provide export to excel or export to pdf option. Yes with just one setting you can now provide export capability on your grid. Let’s see the code to believe it:

<script>
    $("#grid").kendoGrid({
        toolbar:[“excel”]
        ….
        //code omitted for brevity
    });
</script>

And here is the output of the above code:

Let’s go ahead and click on the Excel export button. You should see a file named “Export.xslx” being download to your machine. Here is the screenshot of the excel file on my machine:

Customizing the Exported Excel File:

So far we saw how simple it was to provide an export to excel capability on the Grid. But the exported file was named “Export.xslx”. Well that name is not intuitive. Better would be to provide a meaning full name to the excel file that’s gets exported. Fortunately, the Kendo UI team has thought about it and the Grid API has exposed certain options for Excel export feature. Let’s take a look at the options we have on hand:

Let’s see the above excel options in action. Here is a code snippet which sets the excel options on the Grid:

<script>
    $("#grid").kendoGrid({
        toolbar:[“excel”],
        excel:{
	filename:”Northwind Products Stick List.xslx”,
	filterable:true,
	allPages:false
        },
        ….
        //code omitted for brevity
    });
</script>

Now, when we click on the Export to Excel button – the exported file will be named as “Northwind Products Stock List” and will have data filters on in the worksheet. Here is a screenshot of the exported excel file on my machine:

Well that how easy it is to configure your excel export options.

Programmatically Export to Excel:

So far we have seen how the inbuilt feature of toolbar helps you to provide the excel export capability with juts a single setting. What if you have a scenario where you don’t need a toolbar button the grid rather you need a button outside the grid and on click of this external button excel file should be exported. Well even this scenario is covered by the export feature of Kendo UI Grid. Grid API exposes a single method called “saveAsExcel()” which can be invoked on the Grid at runtime and the excel file will be exported. Let’s see this in action. Here is the code snippet to do this:

<div id="grid"></div>
<button id="btnExport">Export to Excel</button>
<script>
  $("#btnExport").kendoButton({
    click: function()
    {
      $("#grid").data("kendoGrid").saveAsExcel()
    }
  })

    $("#grid").kendoGrid({
        excel: {
          fileName: "Northwind Products Stock List.xlsx",
          filterable:true,
          allPages:false
        },
        …
        //code omitted for brevity
    });

Lets take a closer look at what we have done here. I have placed a button outside the grid. I have gone ahead and set excel export options on the grid. When the button is clicked, I obtain a reference to kendo grid and call “saveAsExcel()” method on the grid instance. And the behavior is the same i.e. an excel file is exported according to the options set on the grid.

I hope this blog post excites you with the new feature of Kendo UI Grid namely Excel Export. If you have followed along the blog post, you would have realized that providing excel export option on a grid is as simple as setting couple of properties on the Grid itself. It cannot get any easier than this. Do give it a try and let us know your feedback or suggestion on Excel Export feature of Kendo UI Grid.

Note: The complete code of this blog post is made available as a Kendo UI DOJO here: http://dojo.telerik.com/@kashyapa/umuWI

Till next time, Happy Coding!