Having a variable available between sheet imports

[stefro]

Hi,

I'm doing a simple import with multiple sheets like this:

namespace App\Imports;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithMultipleSheets;

class UsersImport implements WithMultipleSheets 
{
   
    public function sheets(): array
    {
        return [
            'first_sheet' => new FirstSheetImport(),
            'second_sheet' => new SecondSheetImport(),
        ];
    }
}

I'm doing some logic on the FirstSheetImport and need to pass some data to a variable to the SecondSheetImport. I've tried to do this through a session, but that doesn't work.

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class FirstSheetImport implements ToCollection
{
    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        // some import stuff
       
       session()->put('import_data', 'this is my data');
    }
}

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class SecondSheetImport implements ToCollection
{
    public $my_data;

    public function __construct()
    {
         $this->my_data = session('import_data');
    }

    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        // some import stuff
      
    }
}

Does anyone know how to do this?

[patrickbrouwers]

Maybe try cache() instead? Alternatively use the 2 sheets imports as separate imports (each import only importing one sheet), that way you can pass the data of the first one into the second import.

[stefro]

Hi @patrickbrouwers, thanks for your reply! How do you mean with two separate imports?
Isn't that the same as in my example (first code block)?
How should I be able to get a variable from FirstSheetImport() to SecondSheetImport()?

[stefro]

I think I figured it out! The constructor in the sheet imports are for some reason not able to get the data out of the session! I've been using the Events for this now, and it works. It's not really pretty, but it works...

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class FirstSheetImport implements ToCollection
{
    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        // some import stuff
       
       session()->put('foo', 'bar');
    }
}

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Importable;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\RegistersEventListeners;


class SecondSheetImport implements ToCollection, WithEvents
{
    use Importable, RegistersEventListeners;

    private static $data;

    public static function beforeSheet(BeforeSheet $event)
    {
          self::$data = session('foo');
    }

    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        // some import stuff

      ray(self::$data)
    }
}

[patrickbrouwers]

Both Constructors are called before any sheet has been imported.

[stefro]

Ok, that makes sense now, and that is also my problem. Unfortunately, I've just found that the beforeSheet on SecondSheetImport runs the amount of times that there are sheets in the file (in my case, a lot). So my suggested solution won't work.

I just need a method that runs once every sheet before the import of the sheet. I've spent a lot of time on this right now, so if anyone has a great idea, I would be happy to hear it!

[patrickbrouwers]

As I mention before it's probably easiest to have 2 imports. One for each sheet. First import sheet one, get the data via a getter and setter (example is in architecture docs). Then start 2nd import and pass the data via the constructor.

[stefro]

Thanks for pointing that out @patrickbrouwers. I have 50+ sheets in the file, so I was trying to find a simpler way first. But This is probably the best way after all. There will be a lot of lines of code, but at least it’s very well readable. Thanks!

[patrickbrouwers]

Probably still ways to make it more reusable :) But nothing we have within the package atm

[stefro]

Thanks @patrickbrouwers for clearing up the contstructor mystery! This made me come up with a really simple solution now:

namespace App\Imports;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToCollection;

class FirstSheetImport implements ToCollection
{
    protected $once = false;
    
    public function collection(Collection $rows)
    {
        $this->runOnce();
        
        // do the import in here
    }
    
    private function runOnce()
    {
        if ($this->once) {
            return;
        }
        
        // My logoc in here has access to the session now!
        
        $this->once = true;
    }
}

Thanks again for this great package and awesome documentation @patrickbrouwers !