Pages2Pdf

Module for ProcessWire that helps generating dynamic PDF files from pages with the library mPDF. The PDF output is customizable with ProcessWire templates.

Installation

Please take a look at the following guide: http://modules.processwire.com/install-uninstall/

Important: Update to v.1.1.0+

Version 1.1.0 was a major refactoring of the module. The PDF engine was switched from TCPDF to mPDF, which has superior support for rendering HTML/CSS. Furthermore, creating the PDF files was delegated to a separate module called WirePDF. Some settings related to the configuration of the PDF layout (margins, page format...) were moved to this module. Before you update, please check out the instructions here and make sure that you test the rendering of the PDF files.

Configuration

After installing the module, the following config options are available:

• Enabled templates Select the templates where the module is allowed to create/store PDF files
• Print header Check to print a header in the PDF files
• Print footer Check to print a footer in the PDF files
• Cache time Time in seconds how long the created PDF files are cached before they are created again
• PDF filename Filename of the PDF files. Use placeholders {page.name} and {page.id} as placeholders for the page's name and ID.
• GET variable Name of the GET variable used when requesting a PDF file
• Creation mode Should PDF files be generated and cached on click (when requesting a download) or when saving pages in the admin
• Multilanguage support If enabled, the PDF files are generated for each language. If a user downloads a PDF file, the PDF matching the user's language is served.

More configuration options related to the layout of the PDF are available in the module WirePDF.

Using the module

The goal of this module is to support you creating/downloading PDF files for certain templates. After the installation, you should find a new folder "pages2pdf" in your "/site/templates/" directory. This folder contains the (ProcessWire) templates where you define the markup of the PDF files:

• default.php Default markup if no template corresponding to the page's template is found
• _header.php Header markup
• _footer.php Footer markup
• styles.css CSS styles

Let's say you want to offer downloading a PDF file for all pages with the template "skyscraper". First of all, you need to enable the template in the module's config options. Then, create a corresponding template file skyscraper.php in the "/site/templates/pages2pdf/" directory and define the markup of the skyscraper PDF. You have the full ProcessWire API available. Note that HTML/CSS support is limited, you may want to check out what HTML tags / CSS styles are supported by mPDF.

Finally, output a link in the skyscraper template where the user can click and download the PDF file:

echo $modules->get('Pages2Pdf')->render();

The render method takes an array of options that you can use to customize the output:

$options = array(
  'title' => 'Print PDF',
  'markup' => '<a href="{url}" target="_blank">{title}</a>',
  'page_id' => '', // Pass a page ID if you want to download the PDF for another page
);
echo $modules->get('Pages2Pdf')->render($options);

Since v.1.1.0 calling the render() method is no longer required. You can also write the link to download a PDF file by yourself:

echo '<a href="' . $page->url . '?pages2pdf=1">Download PDF</a>';
// Or to download a PDF file from another page
echo '<a href="' . $page->url . '?pages2pdf=' . $pages->get('/my/page/')->id . '">Download PDF</a>';

Depending on the chosen creation mode in the module configuration, the PDF file is cached before downloading or after saving a page. When the user requests a download of a PDF, the file is only re-created if the cache is expired or if debug mode is on.

WirePDF

This module is a wrapper around the mPDF library. It is used by the Pages2Pdf module to create and store the PDF files, but can also be used independently to create/store/download PDF files.

Configuration

The most important configuration options for mPDF are available in the module configs:

• Page orientation P for Portrait, L for Landscape
• Page format Format of the PDF file, A4,A3...
• Margins Left, Top, Right and Bottom margins of the document in mm
• Header margin top Margin of the header (top) in mm
• Footer margin bottom Margin of the footer (bottom) in mm
• Print header on first page Check to print the header also on the first page of a PDF file
• Mode mPDF mode, change if you need support for additional languages/fonts. [Docs] (http://mpdf1.com/manual/index.php?tid=184)
• Default font Default font. Included fonts are: Helvetica/Arial and Times/Courier
• Default font size Default font size in pt
• CSS file Path and filename of a CSS file containing default styles for the PDF HTML markup
• Author Author of the PDF

Using the module

Here are some examples how you can create and store/download a PDF file:

$pdf = $modules->get('WirePDF');

// Define the main markup
$pdf->markupMain = $config->paths->templates . 'pdf_template.php';

// Header markup, header is only printed if you provide the markup
$pdf->markupHeader = $config->paths->templates . 'pdf_header.php';

// The same goes for the footer
$pdf->markupFooter = $config->paths->templates . 'pdf_footer.php';

// You can override any of the module config options if you have other needs, e.g.
$pdf->pageOrientation = 'L';
$pdf->pageFormat = 'A3';
$pdf->bottomMargin = 10;

// Saving the PDF file to disk
$pdf->save('/path/to/my-pdf-file.pdf');

// ... or request download
$pdf->download('pdf-filename.pdf');

// Setting the markup: Set path to a ProcessWire TemplateFile, an instance of a TemplateFile or just markup
// The lines below are equivalent
$pdf->markupMain = $config->paths->templates . 'pdf_template.php';
$pdf->markupMain = new TemplateFile($config->paths->templates . 'pdf_template.php');
$template = new TemplateFile($config->paths->templates . 'pdf_template.php');
$pdf->markupMain = $template->render();

For advanced usage, you can also get the mPDF instance from the module and modify the object further:

$pdf = $modules->get('WirePDF');

// Get mPDF instance
$mpdf = $pdf->mpdf;

Since version 1.0.3 of WirePDF, you can also call mPDF methods directly on a WirePDF instance:

$pdf = $modules->get('WirePDF');
$pdf->markupMain = 'Hello World';
$pdf->author = 'John Doe';
$pdf->SetKeywords('ProcessWire, PDF'); // SetKeywords is internally called on the mPDF instance