Trace: start » tutorials » creating_pdfs_easy
 
Table of Contents

Render your HTML page as a PDF

Why another PDF tutorial?

This tutorial is based on the PHP Class HTML 2 (F)PDF. This class converts HTML tags to PDF.

You don’t have total control over PDF, and not all HTML tags are supported, but it permits render a .thtml directly to a PDF!

If you need total PDF control by code, you have to use the other PDF tutorial creating_pdfs

Installation

It is only tested on CakePHP RC3 on Linux

1. Download the classes from http://sourceforge.net/projects/html2fpdf

2, Uncompress into vendors/html2fpdf

3. Create the component. Copy the following code to app/controllers/components/pdf.php 

<?php
/**
 * PDF component. Uses html2fpdf library (http://html2fpdf.sourceforge.net/)
 *
 * @author      RosSoft
 * @version     0.2
 * @license     MIT
 *
 */
define('RELATIVE_PATH',VENDORS . 'html2fpdf' . DS);
vendor('html2fpdf/html2fpdf');
 
class PdfComponent extends Object
{
    var $helpers = array('Html');
    var $layout='pdf';
    var $controller;
 
    //capture output from view
    function _content($thtml)
    {
        ob_start();
        $layout_backup=$this->controller->layout;
        $this->controller->layout=$this->layout;
       	$this->controller->render($thtml);
        $content = ob_get_clean();
        return $content; 
    }
 
    function startup(&$controller)
    {
    	$this->controller =& $controller;
    }
 
	function render($thtml=null)
	{
		$buffer=$this->_content($thtml);
		$buffer=utf8_decode($buffer);//I use utf8, need decoding to ISO-8859-1		
		
		$pdf=new HTML2FPDF();
		$pdf->AddPage();
		$pdf->WriteHTML($buffer);
		$pdf->Output(); //Read the FPDF.org manual to know the other options
	}
}
 
 
?>

4. Create a layout for PDF. Copy the following code to app/layouts/pdf.thtml 

 
<?php
	header("Content-type: application/pdf");
?>
<html>
<head>
<?php echo $html->charset('UTF-8')?>
</head>
<body>
<?php 
	echo $content_for_layout;
?>
</body>
</html>
 

How to use

Include the PdfComponent in your controller (var $components=array(’pdf’) )

file: /app/controllers/tests_controller.php 

<?php
	class TestsController extends AppController 
	{
		var $name = 'Tests';
		var $components = array('pdf'); 
		
		function index()
		{
			$this->pdf->render();
		}
	}
?>

It will render its action view by default, which is /app/views/tests/index.thtml. You can render another view by passing its name as an argument to render: $this→pdf→render(’another);

The next example not uses dynamic data, but you can use it just like another view (it IS a normal view)

file: /app/views/tests/index.thtml 

<center>
<h2>CakePHP List</h2>

<table>
<tr>
	<td>Code</td>
	<td>Description</td>
	<td>Price</td>
</tr>	
<tr>
	<td>102</td>
	<td>CakePHP Manual</td>
	<td>30.42</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>202</td>
	<td>CakePHP is Great!</td>
	<td>230.42</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>

See is believe

Go to http://your_host/your_base_cake/tests/

Hey! Not too bad, for two lines of code... Rectification, 0 lines of code, all the rest is Copy&Paste™.

Contribute

This tutorial is not 100% error-free (and my English is very bad). If you find bugs or typos (or a lot of typos...), please correct them!

Author: RosSoft

 
tutorials/creating_pdfs_easy.txt · Last modified: 2006/06/26 05:42 by rossoft