Codeigniter 4 PDF Example: Generate PDF in Codeigniter 4 using Dompdf

CodeIgniter 4 generate pdf example; In this tutorial, i will show you how to implement generate pdf from HTML in Codeigniter 4 app using dompdf library.

Dompdf is an HTML to PDF converter. At its heart, dompdf is (mostly) a CSS 2.1 compliant HTML layout and rendering engine written in PHP. It is a style-driven renderer: it will download and read external stylesheets, inline style tags, and the style attributes of individual HTML elements.

The following example shows how to use Dompdf to convert HTML and generate PDF with minimal configuration.

Specify the HTML content in loadHtml() method of Dompdf class.
Render HTML as PDF using render() method.
Output the generated PDF to Browser using stream() method.

If you want to generate PDF from HTML. In this example tutorial, I will show you step by step guide that in Codeigniter 4 app you will learn how to generate PDF file with HTML using dompdf library.

How to Generate PDF in Codeigniter 4 using DomPdf

Use the below given steps to implement generate pdf app in codeigniter 4 apps using DOMPdf library:

Install Codeigniter 4 Application
Basic App Configurations
Setup Database Credentials
Install Dompdf Library
Create Controller Class
Create Views
Setup Routes
Start Development server

Step 1 – Install Codeigniter 4 Application

First of all, you need to ownload the latest version of Codeigniter 4. So, visit this link https://codeigniter.com/download Download Codeigniter 4 app and unzip the setup in your local system xampp/htdocs/ .

Note that, please change the download folder name “demo”.

Step 2 – Basic App Configurations

Now, you need to some basic configuration on the app/config/app.php file, so let’s go to application/config/config.php and open this file on text editor.

Set Base URL like this

public $baseURL = 'http://localhost:8080';
To
public $baseURL = 'http://localhost/demo/';

Step 3 – Setup Database Credentials

To connect your codeigniter 4 app to the database. So, visit app/Config/ directory and open Database.php. Then add the databasae details like below into database.php file:

public $default = [
        'DSN'      => '',
        'hostname' => 'localhost',
        'username' => 'test',
        'password' => '4Mu99BhzK8dr4vF1',
        'database' => 'demo',
        'DBDriver' => 'MySQLi',
        'DBPrefix' => '',
        'pConnect' => false,
        'DBDebug'  => (ENVIRONMENT !== 'development'),
        'cacheOn'  => false,
        'cacheDir' => '',
        'charset'  => 'utf8',
        'DBCollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
        'swapPre'  => '',
        'encrypt'  => false,
        'compress' => false,
        'strictOn' => false,
        'failover' => [],
        'port'     => 3306,
	];

Step 4 – Install Dompdf Library

To install dompdf pluing by executing the following comamnd on terminal:

composer require dompdf/dompdf

then open app/Config/autoload.php. add namespace to $psr4 array. see the code below:

public $psr4 = [
	APP_NAMESPACE => APPPATH, // For custom app namespace
	'Config'      => APPPATH . 'Config',
	'Dompdf'      => APPPATH . 'ThirdParty/dompdf/src',
];

Step 5 – Create Controller Class

Create GeneratePDF.php file. So, visit app/Controllers directory and create GeneratePDF.php.Then add the following code into it:

<?php 
namespace App\Controllers;
use CodeIgniter\Controller;

class GeneratePDF extends Controller
{

    public function index() 
	{
        return view('pdf-view');
    }

    function htmlToPDF(){
        $dompdf = new \Dompdf\Dompdf(); 
        $dompdf->loadHtml(view('pdf-view'));
        $dompdf->setPaper('A4', 'landscape');
        $dompdf->render();
        $dompdf->stream();
    }

}

GeneratePDF controller’s methods will work as follows:

The index() function renders the list template into the view.
The htmlToPDF() function generate pdf file using html.

Step 6 – Create Views

Create list.php view file, so visit app/views/ directory and create list.php file. Then add the following HTML into list.php file:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
  <title>Codeigniter 4 PDF Generate Example - Lartutorials.com</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>

<body>
  <div class="container mt-5">

    <h2>Codeigniter 4 Generate PDF From View using DOMPdf</h2>

    <div class="d-flex flex-row-reverse bd-highlight">
      <a href="<?php echo base_url('htmlToPDF') ?>" class="btn btn-primary">
        Download PDF
      </a>
    </div>

    <table class="table table-striped table-hover mt-4">
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Name</th>
          <th>Profile</th>
          <th>City</th>
          <th>Date</th>
          <th>CTC</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>Airi Satou</td>
          <td>Accountant</td>
          <td>Tokyo</td>
          <td>33</td>
          <td>2008/11/28</td>
          <td>$162,700</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Angelica Ramos</td>
          <td>Chief Executive Officer (CEO)</td>
          <td>London</td>
          <td>47</td>
          <td>2009/10/09</td>
          <td>$1,200,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Ashton Cox</td>
          <td>Junior Technical Author</td>
          <td>San Francisco</td>
          <td>66</td>
          <td>2009/01/12</td>
          <td>$86,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Bradley Greer</td>
          <td>Software Engineer</td>
          <td>London</td>
          <td>41</td>
          <td>2012/10/13</td>
          <td>$132,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Brenden Wagner</td>
          <td>Software Engineer</td>
          <td>San Francisco</td>
          <td>28</td>
          <td>2011/06/07</td>
          <td>$206,850</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Brielle Williamson</td>
          <td>Integration Specialist</td>
          <td>New York</td>
          <td>61</td>
          <td>2012/12/02</td>
          <td>$372,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Bruno Nash</td>
          <td>Software Engineer</td>
          <td>London</td>
          <td>38</td>
          <td>2011/05/03</td>
          <td>$163,500</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Caesar Vance</td>
          <td>Pre-Sales Support</td>
          <td>New York</td>
          <td>21</td>
          <td>2011/12/12</td>
          <td>$106,450</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Cara Stevens</td>
          <td>Sales Assistant</td>
          <td>New York</td>
          <td>46</td>
          <td>2011/12/06</td>
          <td>$145,600</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Cedric Kelly</td>
          <td>Senior Javascript Developer</td>
          <td>Edinburgh</td>
          <td>22</td>
          <td>2012/03/29</td>
          <td>$433,060</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </div>
</body>

</html>

Step 7 – Setup Routes

To define a route, So, visit app/Config/ directory and open Routes.php file. Then add the following routes into it:

// CRUD RESTful Routes
$routes->setDefaultController('GeneratePDF');
$routes->get('/', 'GeneratePDF::index');
$routes->get('generate-pdf', 'GeneratePDF::htmlToPDF');

Step 8 – Start Development server

Execute the following command into command prompt or terminal to start the codeigniter 4 application:

php spark serve

Then visit your web browser and hit the following url on it:

http://localhost/demo/

OR

http://localhost:8080/

Conclusion

Convert html to pdf in codeigniter 4 using dompdf example; In this tutorial, you have learned how to convert html to pdf in codeigniter 4 using dompdf.