How to download excel (.xls) file from API in postman?

You can Just save the response(pdf,doc etc..) by option on the right side of the response in postman check this image

For more Details check this

https://learning.getpostman.com/docs/postman/sending_api_requests/responses/

If the endpoint really is a direct link to the .xls file, you can try the following code to handle downloading:

public static boolean download(final File output, final String source) {
    try {
        if (!output.createNewFile()) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Could not create new file!");
        }
        URL url = new URL(source);
        HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        // Comment in the code in the following line in case the endpoint redirects instead of it being a direct link
        // connection.setInstanceFollowRedirects(true);
        connection.setRequestProperty("AUTH-KEY-PROPERTY-NAME", "yourAuthKey");
        final ReadableByteChannel rbc = Channels.newChannel(connection.getInputStream());
        final FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(output);
        fos.getChannel().transferFrom(rbc, 0, 1 << 24);
        fos.close();
        return true;
    } catch (final Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return false;
}

All you should need to do is set the proper name for the auth token and fill it in.

Example usage:

download(new File("C:\\output.xls"), "http://www.website.com/endpoint");

For UI, choose Send and Download button instead of Send button in Postman:

In postman - Have you tried adding the header element 'Accept' as 'application/vnd.ms-excel'

In the response section follow these steps:

My answer is for those that are trying to download excel file in laravel using api route. It's important to note that I was using laravel Jobs and dispatch stuff. And I was sending the return request to a json_success helper function which was actually converting my download response to a json. So I simply removed anything that comes in between downloading file. And it's working fine now. As I am using repository structure so I will try to post each function from repository to controller. Dispatch was also giving me 0 which wasn't letting the file to be downloaded.

Before

// export service data // Repository function
public function exportInsuranceServices($insuranceId)
{
    return dispatch_sync(new ExportInsuranceServiceJob($insuranceId));
}

this is the job class

class ExportInsuranceServiceJob implements ShouldQueue
{
use Dispatchable, Queueable;

protected $insuranceId;

public function __construct($insuranceId) {
    $this->insuranceId = $insuranceId;
}

public function handle()
{
    return Excel::download(new ExportInsuranceService($this->insuranceId), 'insuranceService.xlsx',null, [
        'Content-Type' => 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'
    ])->getStatusCode();
}
}

Export Insurance Service

class ExportInsuranceService implements FromQuery, WithHeadings, ShouldAutoSize
{
use Exportable;

protected $insuranceId;

public function __construct($insuranceId) {
    $this->insuranceId = $insuranceId;
}

public function query()
{
    return InsuranceService::query()
        ->where('insurance_id',decryptId($this->insuranceId))
        ->select('name_en', 'name_ar','code', 'price','original_price', 'insurance_id','service_id','status');
}

public function headings(): array
{
    return [
        'name_en', 'name_ar','code', 'price','original_price','insurance_id', 'service_id','status'
    ];
}
}

Controller function

/**
 * Export Insurance Services by insurance id.
 */
public function export($insurance_id,InsuranceServiceRepository $repo)
{
    return jsend_success($repo->exportInsuranceServices($insurance_id));
}

After

// export service data. Here I have removed the job class
public function exportInsuranceServices($insuranceId)
{
    return Excel::download(new ExportInsuranceService($insuranceId), 'insuranceService.xlsx');
}

/**
 * Export Insurance Services by insurance id. Here I have removed jsend_success helper function
 */
public function export($insurance_id,InsuranceServiceRepository $repo)
{
    return $repo->exportInsuranceServices($insurance_id);
}

The ExportInsuranceService is the same as already shown