I have a php file which queries a database and then writes and updates the html accordingly.
I have a button on this page "Export As PDF"..I am trying to convert this page to a pdf using HTML2FPDF, but I get the following error:
FPDF error: Unable to create output file: Entry Report
I suspect the problem is because I am passing a php file instead of a html file:
<?php
require('html2fpdf.php');
if(isset($_POST['link'])){
$url = $_POST['link'];
$nm = $_POST['nm'];
convert($url, $nm);
}
function convert($link, $name){
$pdf=new HTML2FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$fp = fopen($link,"r");
$strContent = fread($fp, filesize($link));
fclose($fp);
$pdf->WriteHTML($strContent);
$pdf->Output($name);
echo ("PDF file generated successfully!");
}
?>
Does anyone know how I can get around this? perhaps by either converting php to html then html to pdf...
Or is there a direct way to convert a php file into a pdf file...
EDIT: OK so the problem was that I didn't allow public write permissions. Upon changing this, I managed it to create the pdf file...The problem is this....the pdf file is blank...
I know this has something to do with the fact that I am passing a php page which is probably empty when it is being passed...How do I capture the html content within the html so the pdf output isn't blank?
Here is the php page:
<?php
function connect() {
$dbh = mysql_connect ("localhost", "user", "password") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("PDS", $dbh);
return $dbh;
}
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['username'])){
if(isset($_POST['entryId'])){
//do something
$dbh = connect();
$ide = $_POST['entryId'];
$usertab = $_POST['usertable'];
$answertable = $usertab . "Answers";
$entrytable = $usertab . "Entries";
$query = mysql_query("SELECT e.date, q.questionNumber, q.question, q.sectionId, a.answer FROM $answertable a, Questions q, $entrytable e WHERE a.entryId = '$ide' AND a.questionId = q.questionId AND e.entryId = '$ide' ORDER BY q.questionNumber ASC;") or die("Error: " . mysql_error());
if($query){
//set variables
$sectionOne = array();
$sectionTwo = array();
$sectionThree = array();
$sectionFour = array();
$sectionFive = array();
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)){
$date = $row['date'];
$section = $row['sectionId'];
switch($section){
case '1':
$sectionOne[] = $row;
break;
case '2':
$sectionTwo[] = $row;
break;
case '3':
$sectionThree[] = $row;
break;
case '4':
$sectionFour[] = $row;
break;
case '5':
$sectionFive[] = $row;
break;
default:
break;
}
}
}else{
//error - sql failed
}
}
?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<script src = "jQuery.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#export").click(function(e){
//post to html2pdfconverter.php
$("#link").val("Testers/viewentryreport.php");
$("#nm").val("Entry Report.pdf");
$("form#sendanswers").submit();
});
});
</script>
<title>Personal Diary System - Entry Report - <?php echo($date); ?></title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Entry Report - <?php echo($date); ?></h1>
<div id = "buttons">
<form id = "sendanswers" name = "sendanswers" action="Testers/html2pdfconverter.php" method="post">
<input type = "hidden" name = "link" id = "link" value = "">
<input type = "hidden" name = "nm" id = "nm" value = "">
<input type = "button" name = "export" id = "export" value = "Export As PDF"/>
</form>
</div>
<h3>Biological Information</h3>
<?php
$i = 0;
foreach($sectionOne as &$value){
if($i == 1 || $i == 3){
$image = "assets/urine".$i.".png";
echo("<br/>");
echo($value['question']." <br/> "."<img src = \"$image\"/>");
echo("<br/>");
}else{
echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
}
echo("<br/>");
$i++;
}
?>
<h3>Fatigue and Recovery</h3>
<?php
foreach($sectionTwo as &$value){
echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
echo("<br/>");
}
?>
<h3>Illness and Injury</h3>
<?php
foreach($sectionThree as &$value){
echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
echo("<br/>");
}
?>
<h3>Training Sessions</h3>
<?php
foreach($sectionFour as &$value){
echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
echo("<br/>");
}
?>
<h3>General Feedback</h3>
<?php
if(count($sectionFive)>0){
foreach($sectionFive as &$value){
echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
}
}else{
$sectionFive = "User didn't leave any feedback";
echo("User didn't leave any feedback");
}
echo("<br/>");
?>
</body>
</html>
<?php
}
?>
and html2pdfconverter.php
<?php
require('html2fpdf.php');
if(isset($_POST['link'])){
$url = $_POST['link'];
$nm = $_POST['nm'];
convert($url, $nm);
}
function convert($link, $name){
$pdf=new HTML2FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$fp = fopen($link,"r");
$strContent = fread($fp, filesize($link));
fclose($fp);
$pdf->WriteHTML($strContent);
$pdf->Output($name);
echo ("PDF file generated successfully!");
}
?>
EDIT @TIMFERRIS
I changed my convert function to this based on @TimeFerris' answer:
function convert($link, $name){
$pdf=new HTML2FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$content = file_get_contents( $link ); //shorter than what you did
ob_start();
echo $content;
$pdf->WriteHTML( ob_get_contents() );
ob_end_clean();
$pdf->Output($name);
echo ("PDF file generated successfully!");
}
The PDF file is created but still blank