How to handle a codeigniter PDF generator

Question

In the view page "ShowInformation.php" I have the code something like this including the omit css style code and other stuff

<?php foreach ($preUser as $value): ?>

Citizen ID : <?php echo $value->cid;?></br>
First Name : <?php echo $value->name;?></br>
...

<?php endforeach; ?>

$preUser is a variable passing from the controller and its from database.

I need to add the download button in that page and generate the PDF with exact the same PHP/HTML/CSS, supporting UTF-8.

Any suggestion ?

Answer 1

WOW I worked but I have my doubts this is the best way?

CI 2.1.3

public function mostrar()
{       
    require_once(APPPATH.'third_party/html2pdf/html2pdf.class.php');

    //vista template pdf
    $template_pdf = $this->load->view('pdf_mostrar', '', TRUE);


    $html2pdf = new HTML2PDF('P','A4','fr');
    $html2pdf->WriteHTML($template_pdf);
    $html2pdf->Output('exemple.pdf');   
}

Answer 2

i'm using html2pdf and it's fine with CI 2+.

it took me sometime to find the right examples for my case but i finally succeeded.

Here's how i did :

1- INSTALL

Get html2pdf at: http://www.html2pdf.fr/en

Copy html2pdf folder into your CI/application/third_party/

*(you'll get something like: application/third_party/html2pdf/html2pdf.class.php)*

---

2- The controller function to process PDF

    <?php 
    class Somecontroller {

        function dopdf($mydat){

            $this->CI->output->enable_profiler(false);
            $this->CI->load->library('parser');
            require_once(APPPATH.'third_party/html2pdf/html2pdf.class.php');

            // set vars
            $tpl_path = 'path/to/view_tpl.php';
            $thefullpath = '/path/to/file_pdf.pdf';
            $preview = false;
            $previewpath = '/path/to/preview_pdf.pdf';


            // PDFs datas
            $datas = array(
              'first_name' => $mydat->first_name,
              'last_name'  => $mydat->last_name,
              'site_title' => config_item('site_title'),
            );

            // Encode datas to utf8
            $tpl_data = array_map('utf8_encode',$datas);


            // 
            // GENERATE PDF AND SAVE FILE (OR OUTPUT)
            //

            $content = $this->CI->parser->parse($tpl_path, $tpl_data, TRUE);
            $html2pdf = new HTML2PDF('P','A4','fr', true, 'UTF-8',  array(7, 7, 10, 10));
            $html2pdf->pdf->SetAuthor($tpl_data['site_title']);
            $html2pdf->pdf->SetTitle($tpl_data['site_title']);
            $html2pdf->pdf->SetSubject($tpl_data['site_title']);
            $html2pdf->pdf->SetKeywords($tpl_data['site_title']);
            $html2pdf->pdf->SetProtection(array('print'), '');//allow only view/print
            $html2pdf->WriteHTML($content);
            if (!$preview) //save
              $html2pdf->Output($thefullpath, 'F');
            else { //save and load
              $html2pdf->Output($previewpath, 'D');
            }

        }
    }

---

3- The view file

Create a template like file in "application/views/path/to/view_tpl.php"

Use placeholders like {myvar} instead of <?php echo $myvar ?>

Remember! do not include: html,head, body tags !

<!-- do not include: html,head, body tags -->
<style type="text/css">
<!--
P {text-align:justify;font-size: 12pt;}
li {text-align:justify;font-size: 12pt;}
table.page_footer {width: 100%; border: none; border-top: solid 1px #000000; }
-->
</style>

<page backtop="14mm" backbottom="14mm" backleft="10mm" backright="10mm" style="font-size: 12pt">
    <page_footer>
        <table class="page_footer">
            <tr>
                <td style="width: 100%; text-align: right">
                    page [[page_cu]]/[[page_nb]]
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </page_footer>
<div style="width:100%;border: 1px solid #000000;text-align:center">
    <h1><b>{site_title}</b></h1></div>
    <p>
    Firstname: {first_name}<br>
    lastname: {last_name}<br>
    </p>
    <img src="<?php echo BASE_URL.'assets/img/test.png'; ?>" width="490" height="306">
</page>

---

4. PDF FILE DESTINATION

The pdf can be saved anywhere. Just specify a destination in the controller function (see $thefullpath and $previewpath)

---

Hope it can help !