---
title: "Templates and error reports — Imports for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "CSV and XLSX templates in English or Slovak with dropdowns and column tips, downloads, the template command, error reports and formula-safe output."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/imports-for-laravel/templates
language: en
---

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[Imports for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/imports-for-laravel.md)

# Templates and error reports

Every importer has a ready-to-fill template, as an XLSX workbook or a CSV file, with headers in the requested locale:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Imports\Enums\TemplateFormat;
use RoundlyConsulting\Imports\Facades\Imports;

return Imports::template('assets', TemplateFormat::Xlsx, locale: 'sk')->download();
Imports::importer('assets')->template(TemplateFormat::Csv)->store('s3', 'templates/assets.csv');
$path = Imports::template('people')->toTemporaryFile();       // you own (and delete) the file
```

- Columns are the importer’s fields in order, minus excludeFromTemplate(). Headers are labels in the requested locale (fallback: the app fallback locale, then the field name); required fields end with “ \*”.
- An example row (templates.example\_row, on by default): each field’s example() or a sample for its type.
- CSV: UTF-8 with a BOM (templates.csv\_bom), the delimiter per locale (templates.csv\_delimiter: comma, Slovak semicolon), plus a hint row (templates.hint\_row.csv): required or optional, allowed values, a date example, Yes/No, the reference columns.
- XLSX: a bold, frozen header; column widths; text columns formatted @ so leading zeros survive, dates yyyy-mm-dd, decimals 0.00…; dropdowns (templates.data\_validation) for choice and yes/no columns — inline when the list fits 255 characters, else a hidden Lists sheet and a defined name; an input message per column (label and hint). No hint row by default (templates.hint\_row.xlsx).
- An unchanged example row or a hint row left in an uploaded template is recognised and skipped (counted as templateRows), in any shipped locale — but only in the first two non-blank data rows, where a template puts them. A real row further down whose values equal the examples imports normally.

## The Template object

```php
$template = Imports::template('assets');

$template->format;                    // TemplateFormat
$template->filename;                  // assets.xlsx — the label as a slug in the template's locale
$template->download('assets-template.xlsx');   // StreamedResponse
$template->store('s3', 'templates/assets.xlsx');
$template->toTemporaryFile();
$template->contents();
```

download() sends an attachment with an ASCII-safe filename and a UTF-8 filename\*, plus X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, and removes the temp file after sending. The temp file is also removed when the object is destroyed — except one you took with toTemporaryFile(), which you own.

## From the command line

```bash
php artisan imports:template assets --format=csv --locale=sk --output=assets.csv
```

## Error reports

```php
return $session->errorReport(TemplateFormat::Xlsx)->download();   // assets-errors.xlsx
$session->errorReport(TemplateFormat::Csv, 'sk');                    // the report's own labels in Slovak
```

The report holds the original header row plus an Errors column, with only the failing rows — invalid at preview, failed at commit — as uploaded, ready to fix and re-upload. It is named after the upload (assets-errors.xlsx), defaults to XLSX and asks authorize(View). The locale argument renders the report’s own labels (the Errors column, the sheet name, unnamed columns) in that language; the messages stay in the session’s locale and the uploaded headers stay as uploaded. A file batch’s report has two columns, File and Errors, one row per refused file.

## Formula injection

Every CSV the package writes — templates and error reports, which echo values other people uploaded — prefixes ' to a cell starting with = + - @, a tab or a CR; a plain number (-5, 1,25) is left alone. Reading a CSV strips that ' again. XLSX output is safe by construction: inline strings, never formulas.

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