OrkestraPdfBundle

Abstracts different PDF generation libraries. Currently supports TCPDF, Zend PDF and wkhtmltopdf.

This bundle is under active development and is prone to backwards compatibility breaks.

Installation

Using composer, in your project's root directory:

composer require "orkestra/pdf-bundle 1.0.x-dev"

Update AppKernel.

// app/AppKernel.php
public function registerBundles()
{
    $bundles = array(
        // ...
        new Orkestra\Bundle\PdfBundle\OrkestraPdfBundle(),
        // ...
    );
}

In addition, you should add TCPDF or Zend PDF to your project, as necessary.

If planning to use wkhtmltopdf, ensure it is installed on your system.

Configuration

No configuration is necessary, unless you want to change default settings.

Configuration defaults reference:

# config.yml
orkestra_pdf:

  # Main cache directory
  cache_dir:  %kernel.cache_dir%/orkestra_pdf

  tcpdf:
    # Path to the tcpdf installation
    root_dir:   %kernel.root_dir%/../vendor/tecnick.com/tcpdf

    # Path to tcpdf fonts
    fonts_dir:  %kernel.root_dir%/../vendor/tecnick.com/tcpdf/fonts

    # Path to tcpdf images
    image_dir:  %kernel.root_dir%/../vendor/tecnick.com/tcpdf/images

  wkhtmltopdf:
    # Path to the wkhtmltopdf binary
    binary_path:  wkhtmltopdf

Usage

This bundle's aim is to provide a uniform API for generating PDFs using different generation tools.

Currently supported: TCPDF, Zend PDF, and wkhtmltopdf.

Generators

The basis of this bundle revolves around services called "Generators". Generators know how to take some input, such as entities and other data, and return a PDF ready to be used. Generators encapsulate library-specific logic, returning a subtype of Orkestra\Bundle\PdfBundle\Pdf\PdfInterface which can then be used to send the generated PDF to the browser, save it to the filesystem, etc.

All Generators should implement PdfGeneratorInterface. Additionally, a base class called AbstractPdfGenerator is included. This document details how to extend AbstractPdfGenerator

Creating an Invoice Generator

The two main methods to implement are: doGenerate and setDefaultParameters.

Implementing the doGenerate method

This method actually performs the PDF generation. It takes two parameters, $parameters and $options.

• $parameters is an array of data to be sent to the templating engine.
• $options is an array of options to pass to the underlying PDF library.

Implementing the setDefaultParameters method

This method configures an OptionsResolver and allows specification of required and available parameters that the Generator supports.

NOTE: There's also a setDefaultOptions method available. Parameters are intended to be passed to the templating engine, things like entities and collections. Options are intended to allow configuration of the generator at runtime.

Example implementation: InvoiceGenerator

In this example, we use the WkPdf adapter and the built in templating engine to render a PDF.

<?php

namespace MyBundle\PdfGenerator;

use Orkestra\Bundle\PdfBundle\Generator\AbstractPdfGenerator;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver;

class InvoiceGenerator extends AbstractPdfGenerator
{
    /**
     * Performs the PDF generation
     *
     * @param array $parameters An array of parameters to be used to render the PDF
     * @param array $options    An array of options to be passed to the underlying PdfFactory
     *
     * @return \Orkestra\Bundle\PdfBundle\Pdf\PdfInterface
     */
    protected function doGenerate(array $parameters, array $options)
    {
        // Use the createPdf method to create the desired type of PDF
        $pdf = $this->createPdf('wkpdf', $options);

        // Call any native methods on the underlying library object
        $builder = $pdf->getNativeObject();
        $builder->useTemporaryFile();
        $builder->setInput($this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice:template.html.twig', $parameters));

        // Return the original PDF, calling getContents to retrieve the rendered content
        return $pdf;
    }

    /**
     * Configure the parameters OptionsResolver.
     *
     * Use this method to specify default and required options
     *
     * @param \Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver $resolver
     */
    protected function setDefaultParameters(OptionsResolver $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setRequired(array(
            'invoice',
        ));
        $resolver->setAllowedTypes(array(
            'invoice' => 'MyBundle\Entity\Invoice',
        ));
    }
}

Useful methods

AbstractPdfGenerator->createPdf($type, $options) wraps the PDF factory registry. As the first parameter, pass the type of PDF and options to configure it. Available PDF types: tcpdf, wkpdf, and zendpdf.

AbstractPdfGenerator->render($template, array $parameters = array()) uses the application's templating engine to render templates for use in generating the content for the PDF.

Registering your generator

In services.yml:

my_bundle.invoice_pdf_generator:
  class: MyBundle\PdfGenerator\InvoiceGenerator
  arguments: [ @orkestra.pdf.factory_registry, @templating ]

AbstractPdfGenerator by default, takes a PDF factory registry and the templating service. You may need to add more dependencies, depending on your implementation.

Using your service

From within one of your controllers:

class MyController extends Controller
{
    // ...
    public function someAction()
    {
        // Fetch the invoice from somewhere
        $invoice = $this->getInvoice();

        $generator = $this->get('my_bundle.invoice_pdf_generator');

        $pdf = $generator->generate(array('invoice' => $invoice));

        // Write the PDF to a file
        file_put_contents('/some/path/to.pdf', $pdf->getContents());

        // Output the PDF to the browser
        return new Response($pdf->getContents(), 200, array('Content-type' => 'application/pdf'));
    }
}

Strategies

Using TCPDF to render template fragments

TCPDF can be difficult to use, especially when rendering HTML. Usually, the easiest way is to position different smaller sections of the page, making multiple writeHTML or writeHTMLCell calls on the TCPDF object.

Here's an example of the same Invoice Generator from before.

class InvoiceGenerator extends AbstractPdfGenerator
{
    protected function doGenerate(array $parameters, array $options)
    {
        $pdf = $this->createPdf('tcpdf', $options);

        /** @var \TCPDF $builder */
        $builder = $pdf->getNativeObject();

        $builder->addPage();

        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 0, 20, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice:invoiceHead.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 20, 43, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice:invoiceIntro.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 20, 66, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice:invoiceBody.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 20, 165, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice:invoiceFooter.html.twig', $parameters));

        $builder->line(0, 190.5, 215.9, 190.5, array('dash' => 3));

        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 21, 200, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice/Detachment:detachmentCompany.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 0, 200, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice/Detachment:detachmentHead.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 19.5, 230, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice/Detachment:detachmentInfo.html.twig', $parameters));
        $builder->writeHtmlCell(0, 0, 22, 210, $this->render('MyBundle:Pdf/Invoice/Detachment:detachmentDetails.html.twig', $parameters));

        return $pdf;
    }
}

See TCPDF documentation for more details.

Using custom subclasses with TCPDF

TCPDF offers the ability to extend the TCPDF class directly to implement, for example, page headers and footers.

The default TcPdfFactory lets you specify a custom subclass by specifying the 'className' option when creating a PDF. For example:

class MySpecialGenerator extends AbstractPdfGenerator
{
    protected function doGenerate(array $parameters, array $options)
    {
        $options['className'] = 'My\Bundle\CustomTcpdf';
        $pdf = $this->createPdf('tcpdf', $options);

        /** @var \My\Bundle\CustomTcpdf $builder */
        $builder = $pdf->getNativeObject();

        // Use your custom subclass as necessary...

        return $pdf;
    }
}

Notice that $builder in the example above is an instance of My\Bundle\CustomTcpdf.