# Upgrade Guide

Upgrading to 4.0 from 3.1
Upgrading to 3.1 from 3.0
Upgrading to 3.* from 2.1

# Upgrading to 4.0 from 3.1

# Minimum requirements

Laravel-Excel 4.0 requires PHP 8.3 or higher and Laravel 12 or higher. You will also need phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 5.3 or higher.

If you are on an older version of PHP or Laravel, upgrade those first before upgrading to Laravel-Excel 4.0.

# PhpSpreadsheet 5

The underlying phpoffice/phpspreadsheet dependency has been upgraded from ^1.30 to ^5.3. Code that only uses Laravel-Excel's own API (exports, imports, concerns) is largely unaffected. However, if you interact with PhpSpreadsheet objects directly, review your code against the PhpSpreadsheet 2.x–5.x breaking changes. Common places this applies:

Event listeners registered via WithEvents (e.g. styling a sheet through $event->sheet->getDelegate() in AfterSheet)
The WithCharts and WithDrawings concerns
Custom value binders (WithCustomValueBinder) and anything extending DefaultValueBinder
Direct use of PhpSpreadsheet classes such as NumberFormat, Style, or Coordinate

See the PhpSpreadsheet changelog (opens new window) for the 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 breaking changes.

# Fully typed codebase

Native PHP types have been added across the entire codebase, including all public methods and interfaces. If you implement any Laravel-Excel interface or override any method, you must update your method signatures to include the matching return types.

// Before (3.1)
class MyExport implements FromArray
{
    public function array()
    {
        return [];
    }
}

// After (4.0)
class MyExport implements FromArray
{
    public function array(): array
    {
        return [];
    }
}

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Common return types to add:

Method	Return type
`array()`	`array`
`collection()`	`Collection`
`query()`	`Builder`
`view()`	`View`
`generator()`	`Generator`
`headings()`	`array`
`map($row)`	`array`
`model(array $row)`	`?Model`
`batchSize()`	`int`
`uniqueBy()`	`string\\|array`
`rules()`	`array`
`registerEvents()`	`array`

Because return types are now enforced natively, some signatures are stricter than the 3.1 docblocks suggested:

Exportable::store() returns bool|PendingDispatch|PendingBatch; Exportable::queue() returns PendingDispatch|PendingBatch.
Importable::import() returns Importer|PendingDispatch|PendingBatch; Importable::queue() returns PendingDispatch|PendingBatch (it no longer advertises returning the importable instance itself).

# FromScout

To keep laravel/scout as an optional dependency, FromQuery no longer supports returning a Scout Builder instance. Use the new FromScout export interface instead.

// Before (3.1)
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery;

class ProductsExport implements FromQuery
{
    public function query(): Builder
    {
        return Product::search('*');
    }
}

// After (4.0)
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromScout;

class ProductsExport implements FromScout
{
    public function scout(): \Laravel\Scout\Builder
    {
        return Product::search('*');
    }
}

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# Export and Import marker interfaces

Two new marker interfaces have been introduced: Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Export and Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Import. All export-related data-source concerns (e.g. FromArray, FromCollection, FromQuery) now extend Export, and all import data-sink concerns (e.g. ToModel, ToArray, ToCollection, OnEachRow) now extend Import.

Because your export and import classes already implement those concerns, they automatically satisfy the new interfaces — no changes are required in most cases.

You can now use Export and Import as type hints wherever you previously used object:

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Export;

public function handle(Export $export): void { ... }

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WithMultipleSheets — the sheets() method docblock return type has been narrowed from array<int|string, object> to array<int|string, Export|Import>. Sheets returned should implement at least one export or import concern, which is almost certainly already the case.

Event::getConcernable() now returns Export|Import|null instead of object. Update any code that relies on the object return type in a type-strict context.

# Job batching (`ShouldBatch`)

Queued exports and chunked queued imports can now implement the Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ShouldBatch marker interface to be dispatched as a job batch (opens new window) instead of a chain.

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\Exportable;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromQuery;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ShouldBatch;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;

class UsersExport implements FromQuery, ShouldQueue, ShouldBatch
{
    use Exportable;

    public function query(): Builder
    {
        return User::query();
    }
}

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When ShouldBatch is implemented, Excel::store(), Excel::queue(), Exportable::queue() and Importable::queue() return an Illuminate\Bus\PendingBatch instead of a PendingDispatch. Update any code that type-hints these return values.

# Queue attributes

Imports support Laravel's native #[Queue] and #[Connection] PHP attributes (requires Laravel 13+) in addition to the existing $queue and $connection properties.

use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Connection;
use Illuminate\Queue\Attributes\Queue;

#[Queue('imports')]
#[Connection('redis')]
class UsersImport implements ToModel, WithChunkReading, ShouldQueue
{
    // ...
}

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# Configuration

The published configuration file (config/excel.php) has no key changes compared to 3.1 — there is no need to republish or migrate your configuration.

# Removed requirements

The ext-json requirement has been dropped (JSON support is bundled with PHP 8). No action is required.

Additions

Column exports and imports (WithColumns)
FromScout concern for Scout-based exports
WithExportTemplate concern to base exports on an existing spreadsheet
ShouldBatch marker interface for job-batch queuing
Queue attribute support (#[Queue], #[Connection]) on imports
Export and Import marker interfaces
Extensible export source handler registry (Excel::registerSourceHandler())

# Upgrading to 3.1 from 3.0

Version 3.1 is backwards compatible with 3.0. Only features were added in this release.

Additions

Imports feature.
ChunkReading
BatchInserts
Queued imports
ToArray concern for Exports.
Custom value binders for Imports and Exports.

Removals

Excel::filter('chunk') method is removed, chunk filter is automatically added when using chunk reading.

# Upgrading to 3.* from 2.1

Version 3.* is not backwards compatible with 2.*. It's not possible to provide a step-by-step migration guide as it's a complete paradigm shift.

New dependencies

3.* introduces some new dependencies.

Requires PHP 7.0 or higher.
Requires Laravel 5.5 (or higher).
Requires PhpSpreadsheet instead of PHPExcel.

Deprecations

ALL Laravel Excel 2.* methods are deprecated and will not be able to use in 3.0 .

Excel::load() is removed and replaced by Excel::import($yourImport)
Excel::create() is removed and replaced by Excel::download/Excel::store($yourExport)
Excel::create()->string('xlsx') is removed an replaced by Excel::raw($yourExport, Excel::XLSX)
3.0 provides no convenience methods for styling, you are encouraged to use PhpSpreadsheets native methods.

You can find an example upgrade for an export here: https://github.com/SpartnerNL/Laravel-Excel/issues/1799 (opens new window)

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