HTML to PDF Rails

Question

I've tried PDFKit and wicked_pdf.

PDFKit almost got me where I wanted but it didn't have support for a css rule so that I could get the footer fixed in the bottom:

position: fixed;
bottom: 0;

Any workarounds to fix this?

Googling the subject doesn't give much except others like prawn and the likes with no html support.

For those who wonder. wkhtmltopdf is installed and works thus PDFKit works.

respond_to do |format|
  format.html {render :layout => nil}
  format.pdf do
    render :pdf => "file_name.pdf",

    :save_to_file => Rails.root.join('public/uploadedfiles', "filename")  
  end
end

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 20 '12 at 09:08

In CSS3 you could use an @page rule to include footers in this way:

@page {
  @bottom-center {
    content: "foo";
  }
}

This is supported in a lot of paid PDF solutions, e.g. PDFReactor and I think Prince.

However Webkit (which wkhtmltopdf is based on) doesn't support the CSS3 paged media rules so you need a fallback.

The Wicked PDF documentation lists a :footer option which you can use to pass in chunks of HTML to render in particular pages. This looks like the best option for you.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '12 at 10:44

0

I haven't tried PDFKit nor wicked_pdf so I'm just wondering. But maybe this could do the trick. Have you tried using Sticky Footer hack instead?

http://ryanfait.com/sticky-footer/

answered Jan 19 '12 at 10:44

Sauco82

3
1

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 19 '12 at 11:55

0

I am really not sure why you would want an element to be fixed in a pdf document, is that really what you want? Besides, both gems make use of wkhtmltopdf, which is an utility that makes use of webkit to render its html and ultimately convert it to pdf. Once it looks great on webkit, it should look great as pdf. But I dont think pdf supports elements to "fixed" as in CSS.

answered Jan 19 '12 at 11:55

Kristian Hildebrandt

1,528
1
14
16

To be more specific. My problems is that on each generated page I want a special footer that is identical and sticks on every new page. with position fixed it worked just as html and then print but not in a pdf. :( – MattiasB Jan 19 '12 at 12:33

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 19 '12 at 21:29

0

I'd recommend looking into DocRaptor. It's got better CSS support than comparable programs, from my experience.

DocRaptor

Here's a link to the code for using DocRaptor with Rails:

DocRaptor Rails example

answered Jan 19 '12 at 21:29

illbzo1

480
3
13

There's one problem with DocRaptor. It is not open source so my boss probably don't want to spend that kind of money on it so not my call there. :( – MattiasB Jan 20 '12 at 08:58
How much does your boss value your time at? How much time would it take before you've wasted more money than just using a hosted solution like DocRaptor? – Gareth Jan 20 '12 at 09:10

HTML to PDF Rails

4 Answers4