Mpdf Bundle Laravel Package

Getting Started

Minimal Setup

1. Install the Bundle

   composer require akyos/mpdf-bundle
   

2. Register the Bundle Add to config/bundles.php (Symfony 4+):

   Akyos\MpdfBundle\AkyosMpdfBundle::class => ['all' => true],
   

   (For Symfony 2.x, follow the AppKernel.php instructions in the README.)

3. First Use Case: Generate a PDF Response Inject the PDFService into a controller and return a PDF:

   use Akyos\MpdfBundle\Response\PDFResponse;
   use Akyos\MpdfBundle\Service\PDFService;
   
   class MyController extends AbstractController
   {
       public function generatePdf(PDFService $pdfService)
       {
           return new PDFResponse($pdfService->generatePdf('Hello, PDF!'));
       }
   }
   

Implementation Patterns

Core Workflow

1. Service Injection Use dependency injection to access PDFService:

   public function __construct(private PDFService $pdfService) {}
   

   (Symfony’s autowiring handles this automatically.)

2. Dynamic PDF Generation Pass HTML or raw text with options:

   $pdfContent = $this->pdfService->generatePdf(
       '<h1>Dynamic Content</h1><p>Generated at ' . now() . '</p>',
       ['format' => 'A4', 'default_font_size' => 10]
   );
   

3. Reusable PDF Templates Store HTML templates in Twig and render them:

   $html = $this->renderView('pdf/template.html.twig', ['data' => $data]);
   return new PDFResponse($this->pdfService->generatePdf($html));
   

4. Streaming Large PDFs Stream directly to the browser to avoid memory issues:

   $response = new PDFResponse($this->pdfService->generatePdf($html));
   $response->setContentDisposition('attachment; filename="report.pdf"');
   return $response;
   

Integration Tips

• Twig Integration Extend Twig to include PDF generation logic:

  {{ app.service('akyos_mpdf.pdf').generatePdf(content) }}
  

  (Requires custom Twig extension.)

• Queueing for Async Generation Use Symfony Messenger to offload PDF generation:

  $this->messageBus->dispatch(new GeneratePdfMessage($data));
  

  (Implement a handler to process and store the PDF.)

• Custom mPDF Configuration Override default settings via config/packages/akyos_mpdf.yaml:

  akyos_mpdf:
      default_options:
          format: 'A4'
          default_font: 'dejavusans'
  

Gotchas and Tips

Pitfalls

1. Memory Limits

   • Issue: Large HTML or complex PDFs may hit PHP’s memory_limit.
   • Fix: Stream output or increase memory_limit in php.ini.

2. Font Paths

   • Issue: Custom fonts require absolute paths.
   • Fix: Use addFont() in the mPDF instance:

     $mpdf = $this->pdfService->getMpdf();
     $mpdf->addFont('custom_font', 'path/to/font');
     

3. Deprecated Symfony Versions

   • Issue: The bundle targets Symfony 2.x–4.x but lacks Symfony 5+ support.
   • Fix: Manually patch or fork the bundle for newer Symfony versions.

4. Caching Headaches

   • Issue: Cached Twig templates may break PDF generation if variables change.
   • Fix: Disable caching for PDF-related templates or use unique filenames.

Debugging

• Inspect mPDF Instance Access the raw mPDF object for debugging:

  $mpdf = $this->pdfService->getMpdf();
  $mpdf->debug = true; // Enable debug mode
  

• Log Errors Wrap generation in a try-catch:

  try {
      $pdf = $this->pdfService->generatePdf($html, $options);
  } catch (\Exception $e) {
      $this->addFlash('error', $e->getMessage());
      throw $e;
  }
  

Extension Points

1. Custom Response Headers Extend PDFResponse to add headers:

   $response = new PDFResponse($pdfContent);
   $response->headers->set('X-Custom-Header', 'value');
   

2. Post-Processing Hooks Override the service to add logic before/after generation:

   # config/services.yaml
   services:
       App\Service\CustomPdfService:
           decorates: 'akyos_mpdf.pdf'
           arguments: ['@akyos_mpdf.pdf']
   

3. Storage Integration Save generated PDFs to storage (e.g., S3) before returning:

   $path = $this->storage->put('reports/' . uniqid() . '.pdf', $pdfContent);
   return $this->redirectToRoute('download_pdf', ['path' => $path]);