Simple PHP example code to convert HTML webpages to PDF

PDF Rocket is based on open source technology and is a free and easy to use web service to convert your HTML webpages into images or PDF files.

Especially great for reporting, brochures and invoicing - create one HTML or PHP webpage and use it as both as a source to generate your downloadable PDF or for users to view directly.

The service will read your webpage and dynamically generate a PDF or an image. It will handle fairly complex documents and layouts including images, although as always the simpler the better.

    • Example #1 - How to use PHP to convert an HTML string to a PDF and save to disk

    • // Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'Test PDF conversionThis is the body'; // can aso be a url, starting with http..

// Convert the HTML string to a PDF using those parameters.  Note if you have a very long HTML string use POST rather than get.  See example #5
$result = file_get_contents("https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf?apikey=" . urlencode($apikey) . "&value=" . urlencode($value));

// Save to root folder in website
file_put_contents('mypdf-1.pdf', $result);

    • Example #2 - How to convert a PHP webpage to a PDF and stream it to a user as an attachment with PHP

      • Example also shows how you can download the file as an attachment, or show it inline in the web browser.

    • // Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'Test PDF conversionThis is the body'; // can aso be a url, starting with http..

// Convert the HTML string to a PDF using those parameters.  Note if you have a very long HTML string use POST rather than get.  See example #5
$result = file_get_contents("https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf?apikey=" . urlencode($apikey) . "&value=" . urlencode($value));

// Output headers so that the file is downloaded rather than displayed
// Remember that header() must be called before any actual output is sent
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . strlen($result));

// Make the file a downloadable attachment - comment this out to show it directly inside the 
// web browser.  Note that you can give the file any name you want, e.g. alias-name.pdf below:
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . 'alias-name.pdf' );

// Stream PDF to user
echo $result;

    • Example #3 - How convert an webpage to an image thumbnail using PHP

      • You can also convert an HTML string to a PDF by supplying the HTML directly. It can be as complex as you like and may include image references and stylesheeet information -- just make sure it is valid HTML

    •                                          
// Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'http://www.google.com'; // can aso be an HTML string
 
// Convert the HTML string to a PDF using those parameters.  Note if you have a very long HTML string in $value use POST rather than get.  See example #5
$result = file_get_contents("https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf?apikey=" . urlencode($apikey) . "&value=" . urlencode($value) . "&OutputFormat=jpg");

// Save to website folder - you can then stream to the user as a thumb or full size image
file_put_contents('my_image.jpg', $result);

    • Example #4 - How to add a standard header or footer when converting HTML to PDF using PHP

      • Be sure to urlencode any extra parameters you send to the API, especially if they have funny HTML characters in them.

    •                                     
// Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'http://www.google.com'; // can aso be an HTML string

// Note that by default all page margins are set to zero - so to make space in the bottom for the footer we set the bottom margin to a higher value
$result = file_get_contents("https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf?apikey=" . urlencode($apikey) . "&value=" . urlencode($value) . "&MarginBottom=30&FooterUrl=" . urlencode("http://www.html2pdfrocket.com/Examples/footer.htm"));

// Output headers so that the file is downloaded rather than displayed
// Remember that header() must be called before any actual output is sent
// Make the file a downloadable attachment - comment this out to show it directly inside
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . 'alias-name.pdf' );
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . strlen($result));

echo $result;

    • Example #5 - Using POST rather than GET when calling the API to convert HTML to PDF's

      • For long strings PHP may have a limitation with GET but you can POST the parameters instead using this syntax

    •                                     
// Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'HTML to PDF conversionA very long HTML body here..'; // can aso be a url, starting with http..
                                           
$postdata = http_build_query(
    array(
        'apikey' => $apikey,
        'value' => $value,
        'MarginBottom' => '30',
        'MarginTop' => '20'
    )
);

$opts = array('http' =>
    array(
        'method'  => 'POST',
        'header'  => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
        'content' => $postdata
    )
);

$context  = stream_context_create($opts);

// Convert the HTML string to a PDF using those parameters
$result = file_get_contents('https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf', false, $context);

// Save to root folder in website
file_put_contents('mypdf-1.pdf', $result);

    • Example #6 - PDF Custom HTML Headers and Footers

      • Instead of using the Footer and Header Left/Right parameters which allow basic text, you can have a full HTML based header or footer by including a URL or a string to an HTML snippet in the HeaderUrl/HeaderHtml or FooterUrl/FooterHtml parameters. You can use page numbering, fonts, colours and images to lay out the header as you see fit here is an example of a standard HTML header. As by default page margins are set to 0 to allow full access to the page, make sure you specify are margin parameter large enough to allow the header or footer to fit. Make sure your header/footer code starts with <!DOCTYPE html> and include the <html> and <body> tags

    •                                     
// Set parameters
$apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
$value = 'http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/'; 

// Make sure your margins are large enough to allow the header to fit                                           
$postdata = http_build_query(
    array(
        'apikey' => $apikey,
        'value' => $value,
        'MarginBottom' => '30',
        'MarginTop' => '10',
        'HeaderUrl' => 'http://www.html2pdfrocket.com/examples/basicheader.html'
    )
);

$opts = array('http' =>
    array(
        'method'  => 'POST',
        'header'  => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
        'content' => $postdata
    )
);

$context  = stream_context_create($opts);

// Convert the HTML string to a PDF using those parameters
$result = file_get_contents('https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf', false, $context);

// Save to root folder in website
file_put_contents('mypdf-1.pdf', $result);

      Here is an example custom HTML header file with page numbers. Do not forget the doctype.

      
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <script>
        function subst() {
            var vars = {};
            var x = window.location.search.substring(1).split('&');
            for (var i in x) { var z = x[i].split('=', 2); vars[z[0]] = unescape(z[1]); }
            var x = ['frompage', 'topage', 'page', 'webpage', 'section', 'subsection', 'subsubsection'];
            for (var i in x) {
                var y = document.getElementsByClassName(x[i]);
                for (var j = 0; j < y.length; ++j) y[j].textContent = vars[x[i]];
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
    <body style="border:0; margin: 0;" onload="subst()">
        <table style="border-bottom: 1px solid black; width: 100%">
            <tr>
                <td class="section"></td>
                <td style="text-align:right">
                    Page <span class="page"></span> of <span class="topage"></span>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </body>
</html>

      This is an example which hides the header on page 1 and 3

                                          
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
    <script>
        function subst() {
            var vars = {};
            var x = document.location.search.substring(1).split('&');
            for (var i in x) { var z = x[i].split('=', 2); vars[z[0]] = unescape(z[1]); }
            var x = ['frompage', 'topage', 'page', 'webpage', 'section', 'subsection', 'subsubsection'];
            for (var i in x) {
                var y = document.getElementsByClassName(x[i]);
                for (var j = 0; j < y.length; ++j) y[j].textContent = vars[x[i]];
                if (vars['page'] == 1) { // If page is 1, set FakeHeaders display to none
                    document.getElementById("FakeHeaders").style.display = 'none';
                }
                if (vars['page'] == 3) { // If page is 3, set FakeHeaders display to none
                    document.getElementById("FakeHeaders").style.display = 'none';
                }
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body style="border:0;margin:0;" onload="subst()">
     <table style="border-bottom: 1px solid pink; width: 100%; margin-bottom:5px;" id="FakeHeaders">
         <tr>
             <th>Your awesome table column header 1</th>
             <th>Column 2</th>
             <th style="text-align:right">
             Page <span class="page"></span>/<span class="topage"></span>
             </th>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>

    • Example #7 - Batch/Asynchronous Process

      • For PDF conversion taking more than 30 seconds or input/output files more than 6 Mb, you need to use the batch/asynchronous parameters.

    •                                     
<?php

    function PostToWeb($postData) : string {

        $apiUrl = 'https://api.html2pdfrocket.com/pdf';
        $opts = array('http' =>
            array(
            'method' => 'POST',
            'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
            'content' => http_build_query($postData)
            )
        );

        $context = stream_context_create($opts);
        $data = file_get_contents($apiUrl, false, $context);
        return $data;
    }

    // Set parameters
    $apikey = 'YOUR-API-KEY';
    $sHTMLToConvert = 'https://www.google.com';

    //as an alternative to polling, you can pass the webhook option parameter from your website
    //where the api could post back once the pdf file is ready
    //the same JSON Result is posted back with Status=Ready and the PDFLink
    $webhook = 'https://b2b-example.customer.com/my-webhook';

    $postdata = array(
        'apikey' => $apikey,
        'value' => $sHTMLToConvert,
        'Batch' => true,
        'Webhook' => $webhook
    );

    $data = json_decode(PostToWeb($postdata), true);
    $postdata['PdfToken'] = $data["PdfToken"];
    do
    {
        //polling every 30 seconds to check if the pdf file is ready
        $data = json_decode(PostToWeb($postdata), true);
        if ($data["Status"] === "Ready")
        {
            $result = file_get_contents($data["PdfLink"]);
            file_put_contents('myFile.pdf',$result);
            break;
        }

        sleep(30);
    }while(true)
?>

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Conversion Tip


The number #1 reason a conversion fails to come out how you expect is because it contains references to external links or images that don't exis - or you are trying to link to localhost! If there is a conversion error, please check the page using your webbrowsers 'developer' network tab to ensure there are no 404 errors.


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