Is there a way I can open an excel template file (.xlsx) via a URL on the server, automatically fill it out with data from the MySQL database and then save it to the user's computer as either excel or pdf file? Where should I start? Thanks for leads!
The file would need to be created on the webserver, pulling mysql data and populating the pdf. Then you would create an href link to the file in a secure folder only your users could access. Then later do some kind of file cleanup when user is done with it. For pdf maybe try this link example: http://www.fpdf.org/en/tutorial/tuto5.htm