PDF Generator

The "PDF Generator" module enables you to generate PDF files based on any data.

Please note, templates for generation of PDF files are needed to be individually coded for this module to work. Usually these are coded directly by AtroCore Team or by our Solution Partner.

Please note, for pdf generation chrome is required on your server. It is used for PDf generation.

PDF document can be generated for:

  • single item, eg some product
  • list of items, eg list of products.

Please note, templates are created based on HTML/CSS. So anything is possible, what is possible with a modern HTML/CSS technology.

Administrator Functions

"PDF Generator" module has no administrator settings.

User Functions

PDF Creating for Single Item (e.g. Product)

If a template for creating of PDF for a single item is available following option appears in the actions menu on the detail page of the respective entity:

pdf-generator-function

Click on "Generate PDF" to open the new window, where you have additional configuration options:

pdf-generator-popup

Here you can select the template (if you have more than one), which can be created for or by you. You can open the pdf document in a new tab or download it directly with the fine name you have defined previously.

It is also possible to create PDF directly from list page. Open the actions menu for the respective record and choose "generate PDF" for that.

generate-pdf-item-menu

Generated PDF looks exactly as defined in your template:

Generated PDF

You can save pdf as an asset (to do it check the checkbox when generating pdf). PDf and asset default names are similar to products name plus SKU (after "-"). You can also select Asset Category(s) for your future asset.

saving-pdf-as-an-asset

Please note, saving PDF as an asset fastens generating new PDFs for this product because new PDFs will be created from an asset.

PDF Templates

PDF Templates are usually created by our team but if you want to do it yourself there is such an option. To get acsses to the templates go to Administration/PdfTemplate. Here you can see all templates created and edit/create one. PDF templates use TWIG template engine. Please check https://twig.symfony.com/ for syntax. CSS and HTML are also supported for editing PDF styles.

saving-pdf-as-an-asset

Select an Entity type for a template. Each template has an input language configured in syntax. For different languages of the same entity you will need different templates.

Chrome is installed and Ghostscript is installed check if chrome and Ghostscript are installed on the server. Chrome is required for PDFs to be generated and Ghostscript is required for Ghostscript parameters to function.

Ghostscript parameters allow you to modify an asset created by generator (to minimize usage of server space for example). The script on the picture, "-sColorConversionStrategy=Gray -dProcessColorModel=/DeviceGray -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4" turns assets created by generator in black and white ones, for example, to minimize usage of server space.

If your template is too big so you are afraid of timeouts, use Use queue manager - now PDF will be created anyway (but it will be in queue manager).

For conventional naming schemas use File Name Template.

Default Asset Category and Default Asset Type are used when Pdf is saved as an asset.

saving-pdf-as-an-asset

PDF template field is your main body of a template. If you need additionally generated header and footer Page number markup in the header and Page number markup in the footer are there. They are configured same as PDF template field. So, if you need, for example, number of pages you can use pageNumber in the footer. If you want regular updates for a file, use Replace existing file checkbox - it will save al lot of server space.

Table of contents is not available by manual configuring but we can program it additionally.

saving-pdf-as-an-asset