generate a PDF document using PHP

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

Hi there, ive been stumped on something for a couple of weeks now and its driving me insane!
Basically throught PHP (connecting to a MySQL database) my pages will generate tables of data based upon specified dates.
Anyway, I then want the data thats displayed on the page to be made up into a PDF document (upon user request).

Ive been on various tutorial websites, ive looked at the suggestions on PHP Manual- but nothing is working. Ive not even come close to getting it to work.

Has anyone done this before and got code to share that may be of help?

[Staff: Warren Ashcroft]

Are you using the PHP PDF functions?

http://uk.php.net/pdf

Sample:

<?php

try {
    $p = new PDFlib();

    /*  open new PDF file; insert a file name to create the PDF on disk */
    if ($p->begin_document("", "") == 0) {
        die("Error: " . $p->get_errmsg());
    }

    $p->set_info("Creator", "hello.php");
    $p->set_info("Author", "Rainer Schaaf");
    $p->set_info("Title", "Hello world (PHP)!");

    $p->begin_page_ext(595, 842, "");

    $font = $p->load_font("Helvetica-Bold", "winansi", "");

    $p->setfont($font, 24.0);
    $p->set_text_pos(50, 700);
    $p->show("Hello world!");
    $p->continue_text("(says PHP)");
    $p->end_page_ext("");

    $p->end_document("");

    $buf = $p->get_buffer();
    $len = strlen($buf);

    header("Content-type: application/pdf");
    header("Content-Length: $len");
    header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=hello.pdf");
    print $buf;
}
catch (PDFlibException $e) {
    die("PDFlib exception occurred in hello sample:\n" .
    "[" . $e->get_errnum() . "] " . $e->get_apiname() . ": " .
    $e->get_errmsg() . "\n");
}
catch (Exception $e) {
    die($e);
}
$p = 0;
?>

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

http://www.internal.tascomms.co.uk/test2.php

This is the error that script generates.

[RFH Reseller: nick]

Are function names case sensitive, you know I can't even think. Not able to test it for you, but I think the function official is written:

PDF_begin_document() 

[RFH Reseller: nick]

No, it's not that. In php 5 it looks like you need to use object method calls instead:

$p->begin_document("",""); 

http://uk3.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdf.php

I haven't tried it…

[Staff: Warren Ashcroft]

Updated my post...

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

http://www.internal.tascomms.co.uk/test2.php

please see above link, im getting a FastCGI Error when I use that exact code.

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

Ive been looking at something called fpdf, not sure if anyone has used it before here?

But basically this is the code:

<?php
require('fpdf.php');

class PDF extends FPDF
{
//Load data
function LoadData($file)
{
    //Read file lines
    $lines=file($file);
    $data=array();
    foreach($lines as $line)
        $data[]=explode(';',chop($line));
    return $data;
}

//Simple table
function BasicTable($header,$data)
{
    //Header
    foreach($header as $col)
        $this->Cell(40,7,$col,1);
    $this->Ln();
    //Data
    foreach($data as $row)
    {
        foreach($row as $col)
            $this->Cell(40,6,$col,1);
        $this->Ln();
    }
}

//Better table
function ImprovedTable($header,$data)
{
    //Column widths
    $w=array(40,35,40,45);
    //Header
    for($i=0;$i<count($header);$i++)
        $this->Cell($w[$i],7,$header[$i],1,0,'C');
    $this->Ln();
    //Data
    foreach($data as $row)
    {
        $this->Cell($w[0],6,$row[0],'LR');
        $this->Cell($w[1],6,$row[1],'LR');
        $this->Cell($w[2],6,number_format($row[2]),'LR',0,'R');
        $this->Cell($w[3],6,number_format($row[3]),'LR',0,'R');
        $this->Ln();
    }
    //Closure line
    $this->Cell(array_sum($w),0,'','T');
}

//Colored table
function FancyTable($header,$data)
{
    //Colors, line width and bold font
    $this->SetFillColor(255,0,0);
    $this->SetTextColor(255);
    $this->SetDrawColor(128,0,0);
    $this->SetLineWidth(.3);
    $this->SetFont('','B');
    //Header
    $w=array(40,35,40,45);
    for($i=0;$i<count($header);$i++)
        $this->Cell($w[$i],7,$header[$i],1,0,'C',1);
    $this->Ln();
    //Color and font restoration
    $this->SetFillColor(224,235,255);
    $this->SetTextColor(0);
    $this->SetFont('');
    //Data
    $fill=0;
    foreach($data as $row)
    {
        $this->Cell($w[0],6,$row[0],'LR',0,'L',$fill);
        $this->Cell($w[1],6,$row[1],'LR',0,'L',$fill);
        $this->Cell($w[2],6,number_format($row[2]),'LR',0,'R',$fill);
        $this->Cell($w[3],6,number_format($row[3]),'LR',0,'R',$fill);
        $this->Ln();
        $fill=!$fill;
    }
    $this->Cell(array_sum($w),0,'','T');
}
}

$pdf=new PDF();
//Column titles
$header=array('Country','Capital','Area (sq km)','Pop. (thousands)');
//Data loading
$data=$pdf->LoadData('countries.txt');
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','',14);
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->BasicTable($header,$data);
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->ImprovedTable($header,$data);
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->FancyTable($header,$data);
$pdf->Output();
?>

and it outputs this: http://www.internal.tascomms.co.uk/tutorial/tuto5.php

The only thing is that the data is presented in a text file like this:

Austria;Vienna;83859;8075
Belgium;Brussels;30518;10192
Denmark;Copenhagen;43094;5295
Finland;Helsinki;304529;5147
France;Paris;543965;58728
Germany;Berlin;357022;82057
Greece;Athens;131625;10511
Ireland;Dublin;70723;3694
Italy;Roma;301316;57563
Luxembourg;Luxembourg;2586;424
Netherlands;Amsterdam;41526;15654
Portugal;Lisbon;91906;9957
Spain;Madrid;504790;39348
Sweden;Stockholm;410934;8839
United Kingdom;London;243820;58862

im not sure how I would adjust this to work with mySQL database and bring data using code similar to this:

$GetList2 = "SELECT * FROM internal_items WHERE order_id = $displayOrderID";
$ResultList2 = mysql_query($GetList2);
$items2 = mysql_num_rows($ResultList2);
 
while ($iitems2 < $items2) {
$itemID = mysql_result($ResultList2,$iitems2,"id");
$quantity = mysql_result($ResultList2,$iitems2,"quantity");
$unit_price = mysql_result($ResultList2,$iitems2,"unit_price");
$line_price = mysql_result($ResultList2,$iitems2,"line_price");
$description = mysql_result($ResultList2,$iitems2,"description");
$quantityHSC = stripslashes (htmlspecialchars ($quantity));
$unit_priceHSC = stripslashes (htmlspecialchars ($unit_price));
$descriptionHSC = stripslashes (htmlspecialchars ($description));
 
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td class=\"tableCell\" align=\"left\"><p class=\"tableCellText\">\n";
echo "$quantityHSC\n";
echo "</p></td>\n";
echo "<td class=\"tableCell\" align=\"left\"><p class=\"tableCellText\">\n";
echo "$descriptionHSC\n";
echo "</p></td>\n";
echo "<td class=\"tableCell\" align=\"left\"><p class=\"tableCellText\">\n";
$unit_priceDisplay = number_format($unit_priceHSC, 2);
echo "£$unit_priceDisplay\n";
echo "</p></td>\n";
echo "<td class=\"tableCell\" align=\"left\"><p class=\"tableCellText\">\n";
$line_priceDisplay = number_format($line_price, 2);
echo "£$line_priceDisplay\n";
echo "</p></td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
$iitems2++;
}

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

here is some other code im trying, still get errors:

http://www.internal.tascomms.co.uk/test5.php

<?php
try {
// create new instance of the 'PDFlib' class
$pdf=new PDFlib();
// open new PDF file
if(!$pdf->begin_document("","")){
throw new PDFlibException("Error creating PDF document. ".$pdf->get_errmsg());
}
$pdf->set_info("Creator","pdf_example.php");
$pdf->set_info("Author","Alejandro Gervasio");
$pdf->set_info("Title","Example on using PHP to create PDF docs");
$pdf->begin_page_ext(595,842,"");
$font=$pdf->load_font("Helvetica-Bold","winansi","");
$pdf->setfont($font,24.0);
$pdf->set_text_pos(50,800);
$pdf->show("PHP is great for creating PDF documents!");
// end page
$pdf->end_page_ext("");
// end document
$pdf->end_document("");
// get buffer contents
$buffer=$pdf->get_buffer();
// get length of buffer
$len=strlen($buffer);
// display PDF document
header("Content-type: application/pdf");
header("Content-Length: $len");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=example.pdf");
echo $buffer;
}
catch (PDFlibException $e){
echo 'Error Number:'.$e->get_errnum()."n";
echo 'Error Message:'.$e->get_errmsg();
exit();
}
?>

[RFH Reseller: Space Cowboy]

FastCGI Error

The FastCGI Handler was unable to process the request. Error Details:

• The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly
• Error Number: -2147467259 (0x80004005).
• Error Description: Unspecified error

HTTP Error 500 - Server Error.
Internet Information Services (IIS)



im wondering if something on my server isnt set up correctly?