/pdf-generator

Cordova plugin to generate pdf in the client-side

Primary LanguageObjective-CMIT LicenseMIT

cordova-pdf-generator

Simple plugin to generate (offline) pdf. the plugin basically transform HTML to PDF and also provide the mechanism to share the pdf to other apps like Mail, etc. For now works in iOS and Android, if you want to add other platform feel free contribute.

The iOS HTML to PDF transformation is based in this work BNHtmlPdfKit, I just add a new method to allow transformation between plain HTML to PDF.

Features

  • Generates a PDF document using a URL or HTML.
  • Open-with menu, open the context menu and (push to cloud, print, save, mail, etc...).
  • Return the Base64 file representation back, so you can upload the file to a server (IOS & Android only).

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • iOS

Installing the easy way (Cordova CLI)

cordova plugin add cordova-pdf-generator

Installing using Plugman

cordova platform add ios
plugman install --platform ios --project platforms/ios --plugin cordova-pdf-generator

Installing using NPM

npm install cordova-pdf-generator
cordova plugins add node_modules/cordova-pdf-generator

Installing the hard way.

Clone the plugin

$ git clone https://github.com/cesarvr/pdf-generator

Create a new Cordova Project

$ cordova create hello com.example.helloapp Hello

Install the plugin

$ cd hello
$ cordova plugin add ../pdf-generator

Example:

This generates a pdf from a URL, it convert HTML to PDF and returns the file representation in base64.

 document.addEventListener('deviceready', function() {

        pdf.htmlToPDF({
            url: "http://www.google.es",
            documentSize: "A4",
            landscape: "portrait",
            type: "base64"
        }, this.success, this.failure);

 });

The same but giving HTML without URL.

 document.addEventListener('deviceready', function() {

     pdf.htmlToPDF({
            data: "<html> <h1>  Hello World  </h1> </html>",
            documentSize: "A4",
            landscape: "portrait",
            type: "base64"
        }, this.success, this.failure);

 });

Opening the pdf with other app menu.

 document.addEventListener('deviceready', function() {

     pdf.htmlToPDF({
            data: "<html> <h1>  Hello World  </h1> </html>",
            documentSize: "A4",
            landscape: "portrait",
            type: "share" //use share to open the open-with-menu.
        }, this.success, this.failure);

 });

Ionic/Angular 2 Example:

import { Component } from '@angular/core';

import { NavController } from 'ionic-angular';

declare var cordova:any;    //global;

@Component({
  selector: 'page-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.html'
})
export class HomePage {

  constructor(public navCtrl: NavController) {
      const before = Date.now();

            document.addEventListener('deviceready', () => {
                console.log('DEVICE READY FIRED AFTER', (Date.now() - before), 'ms');

                //generate the pdf.
                cordova.plugins.pdf.htmlToPDF({
                        data: "<html> <h1>  Hello World  </h1> </html>",
                        //url: "www.cloud.org/template.html"
                    },
                    (sucess) => console.log('sucess: ', sucess),
                    (error) => console.log('error:', error));
            });


  }

}

Demo

API reference

PDF

Due to the different way each platform generates the PDF, options not supported in the platform are just silently ignored.

  • Android/iOS

    • data: here you sent raw HTML.
    • url: url location of the webpage.
  • iOS

    • documentSize: for now only support "A4" and "A3".
    • landscape: portrait or landscape.
    • success callback: only expect one parameter base64 in case you choose 'base64' type option or boolean in case you to share.
    • type:
      • base64 give you the pdf in Base64 format.
      • share opens IOS menu with all options available, this came handy when you want IOS take ownership of the generated document..
  • Android

    • documentSize: parameter is ignored but required.
    • landscape: parameter is ignored but required.
    • type:
      • base64 give you the pdf in Base64 format.
      • share opens Android native PDF viewer.
    • fileName : saved file name
  • failure callback: receive error information about what going wrong, for now is just raw exception so i need to improve this.

Install iOS or Android platform

cordova platform add ios
cordova platform add android

Run the code

cordova run ios
cordova run android

More Info

For more information on setting up Cordova see the documentation

For more info on plugins see the Plugin Development Guide