Generating a PDF in nodejs environment

Contraints:

• as light weight as possible
• should not need to worry about browser - client side ruled out
• preferably use html (as html templates + are already being )

Options pitched:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/html-pdf

HTML to PDF converter that uses phantomjs

https://pdfcrowd.com/doc/api/html-to-pdf/nodejs/

The Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API lets you convert web pages and HTML files to PDF in your Node.js applications.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/html2pdf.js/v/0.9.0

Client-side HTML-to-PDF rendering using pure JS

https://medium.com/@kainikhil/nodejs-how-to-generate-and-properly-serve-pdf-6835737d118e

NodeJS : How to generate and properly serve PDF

https://www.npmjs.com/package/pdfmake

Client/server side PDF printing in pure JavaScript

https://blog.risingstack.com/pdf-from-html-node-js-puppeteer/

First try:

PDFMake - ruled out

- could not set text color flexibly enough (only 7-8 preset colours available; which is weird)

some sample code in pdf make. (presented as it was before being discarded)

- first tried to render to file (but mac preview unlike linux okular / evince does not auto reload)

- so set-up a browser link to atleast have a cmd+r shortcut to refresh

- which resulted in the script below:

///////////////// write pdf to file /////////////////

// const fsPath = require('path');

// const envConf = require('../app-env');

// if (envConf.isDevelRun()) {

// require('dotenv').config({

// path: fsPath.resolve(__dirname, '../env/development.rc')

// });

// } else {

// require('dotenv').config({

// path: fsPath.resolve(__dirname, '../env/production.rc')

// });

// }

// const coreLib = require('../core');

// const logMaker = coreLib.utils.logMaker;

// const logger = logMaker.mkLogger();

// const fonts = {

//  Roboto: {

//      normal: 'test/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf',

//      bold: 'test/fonts/Roboto-Medium.ttf',

//      italics: 'test/fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf',

//      bolditalics: 'test/fonts/Roboto-MediumItalic.ttf'

//  }

// };

// const PdfPrinter = require('pdfmake');

// // const printer = new PdfPrinter(fonts);

// const printer = new PdfPrinter(fonts);

// const fs = require('fs');

// const document

const stylesObj = {

header: {

fontSize: 22,

bold: true

}

};

const myLogo = {

image: 'assets/logo_2x_1274x224_72dpi.png',

width: 144

};

const docHeader = {

image: myLogo.image,

width: myLogo.width,

margin: [72, 72, 0, 0]

};

const docFooter = function(currentPage, pageCount) { return currentPage.toString() + ' of ' + pageCount; };

const welcomePage = [

{text: "Example.com Preliminary Consultation Report", color:'blue', opacity: 0.5, style: ['header']},

{text: "", pageBreak: 'after'}

];

const docDefinition = {

info: {

title: 'Example.com Preliminary Consultation Report',

author: 'Team Example',

// subject: 'subject of document',

// keywords: 'keywords for document',

},

pageSize: "A4",

pageMargins: [72, 108, 72, 72], // 72pt => 1 inch

header: docHeader,

footer: docFooter,

    // content: [

    //  'First paragraph',

// 'Another paragraph, this time a little bit longer to make sure, this line will be divided into at least two lines',

// 'TEsting'

// ],

content: welcomePage,

styles: stylesObj

};

// var pdfDoc = printer.createPdfKitDocument(docDefinition);

// (async () => {

// try {

// pdfDoc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('basics.pdf'));

// pdfDoc.end();

// // process.exit(0);

// } catch (err) {

// logger.info(err);

// process.exit(1);

// }

// })();

///////////////// serve a pdf doc server script /////////////////

var http = require('http');

var express = require('express');

var path = require('path');

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');

var pdfMakePrinter = require('pdfmake');

var app = express();

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

app.use(bodyParser.json({ limit: '50mb' }));

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));

function createPdfBinary(pdfDoc, callback) {

var fontDescriptors = {

Roboto: {

normal: path.join(__dirname, '/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf'),

bold: path.join(__dirname, '/fonts/Roboto-Medium.ttf'),

italics: path.join(__dirname, '/fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf'),

bolditalics: path.join(__dirname, '/fonts/Roboto-MediumItalic.ttf')

}

};

var printer = new pdfMakePrinter(fontDescriptors);

var doc = printer.createPdfKitDocument(pdfDoc);

var chunks = [];

var result;

doc.on('data', function (chunk) {

chunks.push(chunk);

});

doc.on('end', function () {

result = Buffer.concat(chunks);

callback(result);

});

doc.end();

}

app.get('/pdf', function (req, res) {

console.log("got a request !!");

createPdfBinary(docDefinition, function(binary) {

res.contentType('application/pdf');

res.send(binary);

}, function(error) {

res.send('ERROR:' + error);

});

});

var server = http.createServer(app);

var port = process.env.PORT || 8234;

server.listen(port);

console.log('http server listening on %d', port);

-x-x-x-

Next planning to try html-pdf

Works like a charm.

- Loading images is a bit of a challenge.
Need to use file system absolute path
(it seems phantomJS loads the html string as if a browser opens a local html file)
https://stackoverflow.com/a/53467747

- seems pretty light weight.

-x-x-x-
Yet to try this one:
https://www.pagedjs.org/documentation/