PHP - Codeigniter : Uncaught exception 'PHPExcel_Reader_Exception' with message 'Could not open for reading, File does not exist

My current CI project is now handling files. I want to upload the xls| xlsx files to the server and then import Excel data into the Database table.

As the first part, the uploaded file was successfully, and I uploaded the files to the uploads folder in the same level of application, system, assets. Now I want to load this file and import those contents to DB. I'm using PHPExcel to do this operation.

Here is my Controller

$this->load->library('phpexcel');
$this->load->library('PHPExcel/iofactory');

$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();

$objReader= IOFactory::createReader('Excel2007');
$objReader->setReadDataOnly(true);

$objPHPExcel=$objReader->load(BASE_URL().'uploads/Data_Report.xls');

$objWorksheet=$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);

$this->load->model('datas_model');

for($i=2;$i<=77;$i++) {

     $client_name= $objWorksheet->getCellByColumnAndRow(0,$i)->getValue();
     $client_address= $objWorksheet->getCellByColumnAndRow(1,$i)->getValue();
     $data_inp=array('name'=>$client_name, 'address'=>$client_address);
     $this->datas_model->add_data($data_inp);
   }

And here is my View

<?php echo form_open_multipart('../settings_controller/upload_data/do_upload');?>

   <div class="custom-file-upload">
        <input type="file" id="file" name="userfile" multiple/>
   </div>
   <div class="button-container-2">
        <button class="btn btn-primary" id="updown-btn" type="submit" style="height:45px;">Upload </button>
   </div>

<?php echo "</form>"?>

When I'm running, it shows me an error Uncaught exception 'PHPExcel_Reader_Exception' with the message 'Could not open http://localhost/myproject/uploads/Data_Report.xls for reading! File does not exist.'

when i put that Data_Report.xls file inside htdocs , it works succesfully .

The problem is when using BASE_URL().'uploads/Data_Report.xls'. But the file is physically there. I verified by pasting localhost/myproject/uploads/Data_Report.xls on the URL, and it downloaded successfully.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure if that is the case, but you should try to add the absolute path in file system and not the path of the url.

like:

/var/www/YourProject/public/uploads/Data_Report.xls

and not

yourUrl.com/uploads/Data_Report.xls

how to get the absolute path (no hardcoding!) with codeigniter you can use:

FCPATH   -> '/'
BASEPATH -> '/system/'
APPPATH  -> '/application/'

so I dont remember the structure of codeigniter but I got this from google, so do something like this:

APPPATH.'public/uploads/what_ever.xls';