Note:

R&OS Pdf Class Want to create dynamic pdf documents with PHP, but don’t want to (or can’t) install any of those required modules?
Well, we could have the solution for you, a PHP class which will allow the easy production of simple PDF documents...

This class is designed to provide a non-module, non-commercial alternative to dynamically creating PDF documents from within PHP. Obviously this will not be quite as quick as the module alternatives, but it is surprisingly fast, this demonstration page is almost a worst case due to the large number of fonts which are displayed. There are a number of features which can be within a PDF document that it is not at the moment possible to use with this class, but I feel that it is useful enough to be released.

Download the pdf class files from the author's website
File Desc : pdfClassesAndFonts_009e.zip @ 434 KB

Tested on the following environments :

• Cake version
  • 0.10.0.1076_dev
  • 0.10.0.1217_alpha
  • 0.10.1.1248_alpha
  • 0.10.3.1311pre_beta
  • 0.10.5.1701_beta
  • Rc1
  • Rc2

• Operating System
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP

1.Unzip pdfClassesAndFonts_009e.zip

the zip file contains the following files

 - ros.jpg
 - readme.pdf
 - readme.php
 
 - class.ezpdf.php
 - class.pdf.php
 - /fonts folder

2. Rename class.ezpdf.php to pdf.php

3. Edit pdf.php. See Instructions below

Original : pdf.php

<?php
 
	include_once('class.pdf.php');
	
	class Cezpdf extends Cpdf {
	//==============================================================================
	// more comments here
	
	var $ez=array('fontSize'=>10); // used for storing most of the page configuration parameters
	var $y; // this is the current vertical positon on the page of the writing point, very important
	var $ezPages=array(); // keep an array of the ids of the pages, making it easy to go back and add page numbers etc.
	var $ezPageCount=0;
	
	// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	function Cezpdf($paper='a4',$orientation='portrait'){
 

Change the class name and the class constructor from Cezpdf to pdfHelper . See instruction below

Modified : pdf.php

<?php
 
	include_once('class.pdf.php');
	
	class pdfHelper extends Cpdf {
	//==============================================================================
	// more comments here
	
	var $ez=array('fontSize'=>10); // used for storing most of the page configuration parameters
	var $y; // this is the current vertical positon on the page of the writing point, very important
	var $ezPages=array(); // keep an array of the ids of the pages, making it easy to go back and add page numbers etc.
	var $ezPageCount=0;
	
	// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	function pdfHelper($paper='a4',$orientation='portrait'){
 

Yup! that is all you need to change in the pdf class, and we are almost done. We just need to figure out how we can make it work inside CakePHP.

4. Copy pdf.php and class.pdf.php to the CAKE_ROOT/app/views/helpers/ folder.

5. Copy /fonts folder to the CAKE_ROOT/app/webroot/ folder

6. Create a pdf.thtml layout template in CAKE_ROOT/app/views/layouts/ and put the following code inside. See example

CAKE_ROOT\app\views\layouts\pdf.thtml

<?php 
header("Content-type: application/pdf");
echo $content_for_layout;
?>

I would assume you already have your database and Cake model in place. So in your controller use the pdf class by adding it to the var $helpers = array(’pdf’) inside your class controller. In the example below the Cake model is called test in CAKE_ROOT/app/models/test.php. See example below:

CAKE_ROOT/app/controllers/tests_controller.php

<?php
	class TestsController extends AppController 
	{
		var $name = 'Tests';
		var $helpers = array('pdf'); // this will use the pdf.php class
		
		function index()
		{
			$this->layout = 'pdf'; //this will use the pdf.thtml layout
			$this->set('data','hello world!');
			$this->render();
		}
	}
 
?>

Now for the views, create a folder named tests inside CAKE_ROOT/app/views/ and create an index.thtml template inside it. Finally, edit index.thtml and put the following sample code inside:

CAKE_ROOT\app\views\tests\index.thtml

<?php
 
	$pdf->selectFont('fonts/Courier-Oblique.afm');
	$pdf->ezText($data,10);
	$pdf->ezStream();
		
?>

http://localhost/your_cake_root/tests/index

If you can see the “hello world” message inside the PDF running on top of your browser, then you are done.

Note:

Make sure that you have Adobe Reader (or the equivalent) installed, and that the plugin is 
working properly on your browser e.g. Internet explorer or Firefox. 

Otherwise, output the PDF result as a PDF file. 

—-

Happy Baking ! – Ozly