devot:eeDevoted to ExpressionEngine

Let’s face it - PDFcrowd costs money (prices start from $9 a month); but if you want to export your PDF’s exactly as they appear in your browser, using advanced CSS, javascript, charts, reports… you need a decent engine.

Sure it’s going to cost a few bucks a month, but hey, at least you don’t have to tell your client, they can’t export their XYZ because it’s too complicated for PDF’s. What’s more, with PDF caching built in, generate it once, download it a million times and use no extra tokens.

So if you’re in need of producing truly rich PDF’s, you’re in luck.

See it in Action!

Check out how damn good this PDF generation is - we’re not talking print only versions here, it’s the real deal; no farting around with print ready versions, it’ll even cope with CSS3 and Javascript.

Download a PDF version of this page

Now check out the PDFpress equivalent of their Devot:ee page

Quite the difference eh?

Wow your visitors

Make sexy page using your normal HTML/CSS/SCSS/JS and have it look exactly the same in your PDF - you can really make them product brochures, receipts, case studies and more shine. PDFCrowd supports a metric ton of languages… fill your boots. What’s more you can set actual page headers and footers using HTML; yes that footer will stay stuck to the bottom!

No Awkward Conversations

You can offer your clients unlimited HTML to PDF downloads without having to explain why they look so damn awful in PDF format.

You’re in Control

Set the PDF size, filenames, orientation,margins, headers, footers, security (password, printing, copying, modification, encryption), scaling, options to run javascript, print imagery, print versions, make hyperlinks… and more!

Peace of Mind

Got a problem? Lets figure it out - we’re on standby for your support needs. As with all add ons here on Devot:ee, refund the heck out of them if you’re not satisfied.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, lets get started.

Setup

Grab yourself an API key from http://pdfcrowd.com/. Once you’ve got that, add it to the settings page in this module and start making PDF versions of your awesome HTML content. You can use the API for FREE if you only require up to 100 pdf’s generating - couple that with server side caching and you might never need any more.

PDF Caching

You can optionally set PDF’s to be stored as MySQL BLOBS; this means that after you’ve generated a PDF, you need never connect to the API again to re-generate the same PDF. Set a unique name and a cache timeout and you’re set.

Settings

You can change all settings (from pdf margins, to orientation, to images, SSL, pdf passwords etc) all in the control panel or override in EE templates.

URL Usage

Your standard PDF generation for every day public pages, news articles, case studies etc. Simple and effective.

{exp:pdfcrowd:generate url="{site_url}/template_group/{segment_3}"}

HTML Usage

Member pages, secure pages, invoices, receipts or if you prefer doing it this way (we do) then wrap the PDFcrowd tag pair around your HTML / EE template code. You’ll need to remember to use absolute image / css paths as you’re sending the HTML to the API, rather than letting it come and fetch it.

{exp:pdfcrowd:generate}
 {!-- insert your HTML / exp template code here --}
{/exp:pdfcrowd:generate}

Caching

Set a unique name for your cached PDF ({entry_id} / {url_title} etc) and specify a cache timeout in seconds.

{exp:pdfcrowd:generate cache_name='{entry_id}' cache_timeout='604800'}
 {!-- insert your HTML / exp template code here --}
{/exp:pdfcrowd:generate}

Headers & Footers

Setting HTML headers and footers are a doddle. It’s worth point out that these sections of HTML are treated as separate entities, so your body CSS won’t pull over. They’re only small so some inline CSS will most likely do the trick.

{exp:pdfcrowd:generate header='<div style=''>My Header HTML</div>' footer='<div data-style="">My Footer HTML here</div>'}
 {!-- insert your HTML / exp template code here --}
{/exp:pdfcrowd:generate}

Release Notes

1.0.6 - PDF caching! You can now store your PDF’s in the database, so you only need to generate them the 1 time. Will dramatically reduce API token usage.
1.0.5 - Bug Fix
1.0.4 - Update to work on member only / logged in pages
1.0.3 - Bug Fix
1.0.2 - Added name parameter & fix margin save issue
1.0.1 - Fixed {site_url} encoding issue