Flex and PHP - A simple sample

http://blogs.adobe.com/mikepotter/2006/02/flex_and_php_a_1.html

Using the Adobe PHP RIA SDK

Using Flex 2 RemoteObject and SabreAMF

Flex & PHP Tutorial - Transmitting data using JSON

great tutorial here

flex export datagrid to excel via PHP

just find a great source by saskovic's blog
see here

here is flex source:ExportDataGridToExcelViaPhp.mxml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute">
   <mx:Script>

      <![CDATA[

        /**
         * Simple script to convert a Datagrid to a HTML table and then 
         * pass it on to an external excel exporter
         *
         * @author: S.Radovanovic (With help of Tracy Spratt through the post on
         *          http://www.cflex.net/showFileDetails.cfm?ObjectID=298&Object=File&ChannelID=1)
         */    

        //Libs that are mostly used 
        //(only a number are necessary for the datagrid conversion and export)
       import mx.controls.Alert;

       import mx.core.UIComponent;
       import mx.core.Container;

       import mx.events.ItemClickEvent;
       import mx.utils.ObjectProxy;

      import flash.errors.*;
      import flash.events.*;
      import flash.external.*;      
      import flash.net.URLLoader;

      import flash.net.URLVariables;
      import flash.net.URLRequest;

        
        //The location of the excel export file
        public var urlExcelExport:String = "http://localhost/amfphp1_2/services/excelexport.php";
        
    
        /**
         * Convert the datagrid to a html table
         * Styling etc. can be done externally
         * 
         * @param: dg Datagrid Contains the datagrid that needs to be converted
         * @returns: String
         */

        private function convertDGToHTMLTable(dg:DataGrid):String 
        {
           //Set default values
           var font:String = dg.getStyle('fontFamily');

           var size:String = dg.getStyle('fontSize');
           var str:String = '';

           var colors:String = '';
           var style:String = 'style="font-family:'+font+';font-size:'+size+'pt;"';            
           var hcolor:Array;

           
           //Retrieve the headercolor
           if(dg.getStyle("headerColor") != undefined) 
           {
              hcolor = [dg.getStyle("headerColor")];
           } 
           else 
           {

              hcolor = dg.getStyle("headerColors");
           }            
           
           //Set the htmltabel based upon knowlegde from the datagrid
           str+= '<table width="'+dg.width+'"><thead><tr width="'

                +dg.width+'" style="background-color:#' 
                +Number((hcolor[0])).toString(16)+'">';

           
           //Set the tableheader data (retrieves information from the datagrid header            
           for(var i:int = 0;i<dg.columns.length;i++) 
           {

              colors = dg.getStyle("themeColor");
                 
              if(dg.columns[i].headerText != undefined) 
              {

                 str+="<th "+style+">"+dg.columns[i].headerText+"</th>";
              } 
              else 
              {

                 str+= "<th "+style+">"+dg.columns[i].dataField+"</th>";
              }
           }

           
           str += "</tr></thead><tbody>";
           colors = dg.getStyle("alternatingRowColors");

           
           //Loop through the records in the dataprovider and 
           //insert the column information into the table
           for(var j:int =0;j<dg.dataProvider.length;j++) 
           {               
              str+="<tr width=\""+Math.ceil(dg.width)+"\">";

                 
              for(var k:int=0; k < dg.columns.length; k++) 
              {

                 
                 //Do we still have a valid item?                  
                 if(dg.dataProvider.getItemAt(j) != undefined && dg.dataProvider.getItemAt(j) != null) 
                 {

                    
                    //Check to see if the user specified a labelfunction which we must
                    //use instead of the dataField
                    if(dg.columns[k].labelFunction != undefined) 
                    {

                       str += "<td width=\""+Math.ceil(dg.columns[k].width)+"\" "+style+">"

                           +dg.columns[k].labelFunction(dg.dataProvider.getItemAt(j),dg.columns[k].dataField)
                           +"</td>";
                       
                    } 
                    else 
                    {

                       //Our dataprovider contains the real data
                       //We need the column information (dataField)
                       //to specify which key to use.
                       str += "<td width=\""+Math.ceil(dg.columns[k].width)+"\" "+style+">"

                          +dg.dataProvider.getItemAt(j)[dg.columns[k].dataField]+"</td>";
                    }
                 }
              }

              str += "</tr>";
           }
           
           str+="</tbody></table>";

        
           return str;
        }
        
      /**
       * Load a specific datagrid into Excel
       * This method passes the htmltable string to an backend script which then
       * offers the excel download to the user.
       * The reason for not using a copy to clipboard and then javascript to
       * insert it into Excel is that this mostly will fail because of the user
       * setup (Webbrowser configuration).
       * 
       * @params: dg Datagrid The Datagrid that will be loaded into Excel
       */
      private function loadDGInExcel(dg:DataGrid):void 
      {

         //Pass the htmltable in a variable so that it can be delivered
         //to the backend script
         var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables(); 
         variables.htmltable   = convertDGToHTMLTable(dg);

         
         //Setup a new request and make sure that we are 
         //sending the data through a post
         var u:URLRequest = new URLRequest(urlExcelExport);

         u.data = variables; //Pass the variables
         u.method = URLRequestMethod.POST; //Don't forget that we need to send as POST
         
         //Navigate to the script
         //We can use _self here, since the script will through a filedownload header
         //which results in offering a download to the user (and still remaining in you Flex app.)

            navigateToURL(u,"_self");
        }       
                        
      ]]>   
   </mx:Script>
      
  <mx:DataGrid id="grid" editable="true" >

    <mx:columns>
      <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Scheduled Date"
        dataField="scheduledDate" />

      <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Home Team"
        dataField="homeTeam" />
      <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Away Team"

        dataField="awayTeam" />
      <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Field"
        dataField="field" />

    </mx:columns>
    <mx:dataProvider>
      <mx:Object scheduledDate="4/1/2006" homeTeam="Chester Bucks"

        awayTeam="Long Valley Hitters" field="Dawn Field" />
    </mx:dataProvider>

  </mx:DataGrid>      
  <mx:Button x="136" y="175" label="saveDagaGridToExcel; id="saveDagaGridToExcel_btn" click="loadDGInExcel(grid)"/>

</mx:Application>

and here is php source:excelexport.php

<pre>
<?php
/**
 * Export data, delivered in the POST, to excel.
 * 
 * @author S.Radovanovic
 * @version $Id$
 */
header('ETag: etagforie7download'); //IE7 requires this header
header('Content-type: application/octet_stream');

header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="report.xls"');

//Add html tags, so that excel can interpret it
echo "<html>
<body>
".stripslashes($_POST["htmltable"])."

</body>
</html>
";
?>
</pre>

put excelexport.php to c:/wamp/www and here u go!