Using React-pdf in Node JS to render pdf content to string

Question

I am using the npm @react-pdf/renderer to convert a pdf content to a string in node js (using the renderToString method from the npm) so i can attach the pdf to an email. The issue is everything i try leads to an error when attempting this.

Try 1: I've tried is creating the pdf on the front end and sending the data to my node server:

pdf.js (front-end)

  const MyDoc = () => (
    <Document>
      <Page>
        <Text>React-pdf</Text>
      </Page>
    </Document>
  )


//using firebase to call https callable node functions
functions.httpsCallable('pdfRenderToString')({ htmlElement: <MyDoc />  }) 

index.js (node)

//call renderToString from react-pdf

exports.pdfRenderToString = functions.https.onCall((data, context) => {
  return renderToString(data.htmlElement)
    .then(pdf => {
      return pdf
    })
    .catch((err) => console.log(err)) //always hits this error, says 'cannot convert Symbol to string'
})

Try 2: i thought maybe the pdf html must be created on node so i tried that

index.js (node)

const MyDoc = () => (
    <Document>
      <Page>
        <Text>React-pdf</Text>
      </Page>
    </Document>
  )

renderToString(<MyDoc />)
    .then()...
    .catch...

This method forces me to import React (which i find weird but do it anyways)... This time the firebase functions don't even deploy and show error "Failed to load function definition from source: Failed to generate manifest from function source: SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<'"

I've tried everything the react-pdf docs say and i haven't had the least bit of success.

Anyone know what i'm doing wrong or missing?