Generate PDF using node.js

3 min readMar 29, 2018

To create PDF you need to HTML content of that particular, We will generate PDF of same HTML content.

I am using nodejs and I want to generate PDF on specific route ( end point/API ).

So let’s start….

I am using:

var ejs = require(‘ejs’);
var fs = require(‘fs’);
var pdf = require(‘html-pdf’);

Have a look on below code we will use it later. Here is the ejs file where I have written ejs code for dynamic data.

views/indexEJS.ejs

<div>
   <div>
        <h5><%= appointmentObj.firstName %></h5>
        <p><%= appointmentObj.lastName %></p>
   </div>
</div>

Image Example:

global/index.js

/**
 * Create PDF from HTML and send the URL of PDF. 
 * You can add Header/Footer in your PDF also
 */
var pdf = require(‘html-pdf’);  // npm install html-pdf — saveglobal.createPDFFile = function (htmlString, fileName, callback) {
var options = {
    format: ‘Letter’,
    header: {
       “height”: “15mm”,
       “contents”: “<img alt=’Clintek logo’ 
                         height=’100' 
                         width=’100'
                         src=’http://52.207.115.173:9191/files/5a6597eb7a67600c64ce52cf/?api_key=25BDD8EC59070421FDDE3C571182F6F12F5AAF99FF821A285884E979F3783B23'>"
          },
       “timeout”: 600000,
       “footer”: {
       “height”: “15mm”,
       “contents”: {
        first: ‘<div>
                   <span>1</span>
                 </div>’,         2: ‘<div>
                 <span>2</span>
            </div>’,  // Any page number is working. 1-based index         3: ‘<div>
                 <span>3</span>
             </div>’,         4: ‘<div>
                <span>4</span>
            </div>’,         5: ‘<div>
                <span>6</span>
             </div>’,         6: ‘<div>
                <span>7</span>
             </div>’,         default: ‘<div>
                          <span>Appointment Report</span>
                   </div>’, // fallback value         last: ‘<div>
                       <span>Last Page</span>
                </div>’,       }    }};/**
 * It will create PDF of that HTML into given folder.
 */ 
pdf.create(htmlString, options).toFile(‘./public/pdf/’ + fileName, function (err, data) {
    if (err) return console.log(err);
    return callback(null, config.get(‘AdminBaseURL’) + ‘:’ +
         config.get(‘server.port’) + ‘/pdf/’ + fileName)
  });
}

Image Example:

I have an end points where a doctor complete an appointment and after completeion of appointment doctor send the PDF URL to its patient. ( PDF will generate on server and it will store over there ).

Here is the end point:

var route = new Route(‘put’, ‘/cancel-complete-appointment/:id’);

And here is the middleware where I will write the code to generate the PDF.

var global = require(‘../../modules/global/index’);route.use(function (req, res, next) {
    var appointMentObj = {
             firstName: “Shubham”,
             lastName: “Verma”
           }var contents = fs.readFileSync(‘./views/indexEJS.ejs’, ‘utf8’);
/*
 * It will convert into HTML with the value according to the
 * contents and appointMentObj.
 */var html = ejs.render(contents, appointMentObj);/*
 * Call a user define method to generate PDF.
 */global.createPDFFile(html, req.params.id + ‘.pdf’, function (err, result) {
    if (err) {
          console.log(err);
      } else { 
          console.log(“PDF URL ADDED.”);
          res.send(result);
      }
   });
});

Image Example:

Here is the generated pdf ( By me :) )

If you want to create pdf in nodejs from scratch then this link will help you a lot.

Congratulations.. You have created PDF. :)

( Feel free to ask for any doubt )

Generate PDF using node.js

Written by Shubham Verma