Usage

Using the dompdf class directly

Using the dompdf class directly is fairly straightforward:

<?php
require_once("dompdf_config.inc.php");

$html =
  '<html><body>'.
  '<p>Put your html here, or generate it with your favourite '.
  'templating system.</p>'.
  '</body></html>';

$dompdf = new DOMPDF();
$dompdf->load_html($html);
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream("sample.pdf");

?>

Below is a summary of the methods available in the dompdf class.

Method summary

The methods available in the instances of the DOMPDF class are :

load_html

Loads an HTML string. Parse errors are stored in the global array $_dompdf_warnings.

Arguments:

string $str: HTML text to load

string[optional] $encoding: encoding, if not provided, dompdf will try to find it.

load_html_file

Loads an HTML file. Parse errors are stored in the global array $_dompdf_warnings.

Arguments:

string $file: a filename or url to load

output

Returns the PDF as a string. The file will open a download dialog by default. The options parameter controls the output.

Arguments:

array $options: accepted options are:

compress => 1 or 0 - apply content stream compression, this is on (1) by default

render

Renders the HTML to PDF.

Arguments: none.

set_base_path

Sets the base path, used for external stylesheets and images.

Arguments:

string $path: The base path to be used when resolving external resources URLs.

set_paper

Sets the paper size & orientation

Arguments:

string|array $size: 'letter', 'legal', 'A4', etc. See CPDF_Adapter::$PAPER_SIZES

string $orientation: 'portrait' or 'landscape'

stream

Streams the PDF to the client. The file will open a download dialog by default. The options parameter controls the output.

Arguments:

string $filename: the name of the streamed file

array $options: accepted options are:

'compress' = > 1 or 0 - apply content stream compression, this is on (1) by default

'Attachment' => 1 or 0 - if 1, force the browser to open a download dialog, on (1) by default

Invoking dompdf via the web

The dompdf.php script is not intended to be an interactive page. It receives input parameters via $_GET and can stream a PDF directly to the browser. This makes it possible to embed links to the script in a page that look like static PDF links, but are actually dynamically generated. This method is also useful as a redirection target.

dompdf.php accepts the following $_GET variables:

`input_file`	required	a rawurlencoded() path to the HTML file to process. Remote files (http/ftp) are supported if fopen wrappers are enabled.
`paper`	optional	the paper size. Defaults to 'letter' (unless the default has been changed in dompdf_config.inc.php). See include/pdf_adapter.cls.php, or invoke dompdf.php on the command line with the -l switch for accepted paper sizes.
`orientation`	optional	'portrait' or 'landscape'. Defaults to 'portrait'.
`base_path`	optional	the base path to use when resolving relative links (images or CSS files). Defaults to the directory containing the file being accessed. (This option is useful for pointing dompdf at your CSS files even though the HTML file may be elsewhere.)
`output_file`	optional	the rawurlencoded() name of the output file. Defaults to 'dompdf_out.pdf'. Deprecated in 0.6, forced to "dompdf_out.pdf"
`save_file`	optional	If present (i.e. `isset($_GET["save_file"])`), output_file is saved locally, Otherwise the file is streamed directly to the client. Deprecated in 0.6, forced to `false`

One technique for generating dynamic PDFs is to generate dynamic HTML as you normally would, except instead of displaying the output to the browser, you use output buffering and write the output to a temporary file. Once this file is saved, you redirect to the dompdf.php script.

If you use a templating engine like Smarty, you can simply do:

<?php
$tmpfile = tempnam("/tmp", "dompdf_");
file_put_contents($tmpfile, $smarty->fetch()); // Replace $smarty->fetch()
                                               // with your HTML string

$url = "dompdf.php?input_file=" . rawurlencode($tmpfile) . 
       "&paper=letter&output_file=" . rawurlencode("My Fancy PDF.pdf");

header("Location: http://" . $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] . "/$url");
?>

If you use any stylesheets, you may need to provide the base_path option to tell dompdf where to look for them, as they are not likely relative to /tmp ;).

Invoking dompdf via the command line

You can execute dompdf.php using the following command:

$ php -f dompdf.php -- [options]

(If you find yourself using only the cli interface, you can add #!/usr/bin/php as the first line of dompdf.php to invoke dompdf.php directly.)

dompdf.php is invoked as follows:

$ ./dompdf.php [options] html_file

html_file can be a filename, a url if fopen_wrappers are enabled, or the '-' character to read from standard input.

`-h`	Show a brief help message
`-l`	list available paper sizes
`-p size`	paper size; something like 'letter', 'A4', 'legal', etc. Thee default is 'letter'
`-o orientation`	either 'portrait' or 'landscape'. Default is 'portrait'.
`-b path`	the base path to use when resolving relative links (images or CSS files). Default is the directory of html_file.
`-f file`	the output filename. Default is the input `[html_file].pdf`.
`-v`	verbose: display html parsing warnings and file not found errors.
`-d`	very verbose: display oodles of debugging output; every frame in the tree is printed to stdout.

Examples:

$ php -f dompdf.php -- my_resume.html
$ ./dompdf.php -b /var/www/ ./web_stuff/index.html
$ echo '<html><body>Hello world!</body></html>' | ./dompdf.php -

Inline PHP support

dompdf supports two varieties of inline PHP code. All PHP evaluation is controlled by the DOMPDF_ENABLE_PHP configuration option. If it is set to false, then no PHP code is executed. Otherwise, PHP is evaluated in two passes:

The first pass is useful for inserting dynamic data into your PDF. You can do this by embedding <?php ?> tags in your HTML file, as you would in a normal .php file. This code is evaluated prior to parsing the HTML, so you can echo any text or markup and it will appear in the rendered PDF.

The second pass is useful for performing drawing operations on the underlying PDF class directly. You can do this by embedding PHP code within <script type="text/php"> </script> tags. This code is evaluated during the rendering phase and you have access to a few internal objects and operations. In particular, the $pdf variable is the current instance of Canvas. Using this object, you can write and draw directly on the current page. Using the Canvas::open_object(), Canvas::close_object() and Canvas::add_object() methods, you can create text and drawing objects that appear on every page of your PDF (useful for headers & footers).

The following variables are defined for you during the second pass of PHP execution:

`$pdf`	the current instance of `Canvas`
`$PAGE_NUM`	the current page number
`$PAGE_COUNT`	the total number of pages in the document

For more complete documentation of the Canvas API, see the API documentation.

umanda / dompdf

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