Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer is a PHP module for generating Excel spreadsheets. The current release is 0.9.3 (Beta) and has not been updated since January, 2012.

A developer, Alexey Kopytko patched the package and released an an updated beta (0.9.4), introducing compatibility for PHP versions 5.3 to PHP 5.6.

Follow these steps to install the updated version of the module:

cd /opt/
wget https://github.com/pear/Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer/archive/v0.9.4-beta.tar.gz
tar zxf v0.9.4-beta.tar.gz

cd /opt/Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer-0.9.4-beta/package.xml
pear install package.xml

You should now have the Spreadsheet libraries under /usr/share/php/Spreadsheet

Cheers!