BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service

Submit a slug of HTML, get a Google Chrome rendered PDF back.

A quick to stand up HTML to PDF service powered by headless Google Chrome. Deploy with one click and start generating PDF's from your web application or command line.

Getting Started

1. Submit HTML to be converted

This is done with a POST request the the web server. We'll use some example HTML for this example.

  curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer PRIVATE_TOKEN_DEFINED_IN_SERVER_ENVIRONMENT' \
    http://url-of-your-breezy-pdf-lite-server/render/html \
    -d "`curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielwestendorf/breezy-pdf-lite/master/sample.html`" \
    -o example.pdf

This will create the PDF in the current directory by the name of example.pdf.

2. Configure with meta tags (optional)

All configuration for the rendering of your PDF can be configured by meta tags within the HTML you submit. Simply insert the needed meta tag into the head or body of the HTML.

  <meta name="breezy-pdf-width" content="10">

Tag name	Default Value	Description
breezy-pdf-filename	output.pdf	Name of the pdf
breezy-pdf-width	8.5	PDF page width in inches
breezy-pdf-height	11	PDF page height in inches
breezy-pdf-cssPageSize	false	Use page size defined by CSS
breezy-pdf-marginTop	0.4	Top margin
breezy-pdf-marginRight	0.4	Right margin
breezy-pdf-marginBottom	0.4	Bottom margin
breezy-pdf-marginLeft	0.4	Left margin
breezy-pdf-landscape	false	Print in landscape mode
breezy-pdf-scale	1	Scale the viewport before converting to pdf
breezy-pdf-displayBackground	false	Render the background in the HTML is included in the PDF

View the all the configuration options and their documentation here.

2.a Header and Footer Templates

Configure the HTML template to be included at the top and bottom of every page. Include elements with the classes of date, title, pageNumber, and totalPages to have values inserted at render time. At this time, any images must be DataURI encoded and styles must be specified within the template. Defaults to no HTML.

CSS class	Description
date	Formatted render date displayed in UTC
title	Title of the document specified by the title tag
pageNumber	The count of the current page in the PDF
totalPages	The total count of pages in the PDF

2.b Completion Triggers

Notify the rendering engine when your rich content has completed loading and the PDF is ready to be rendered. Most typically used when complex JavaScript needs to be evaluated. The default completion trigger is a timer of 5000ms. If multiple completion triggers, the first trigger used will be adopted based on the order in which they're specified here.

Callback

A JavaScript function in the global namespace which will be defined by the renderer. Your code will be invoke this callback when the document is ready for PDF rendering. Optional timeout can be specified in ms, defaulting to 5000ms.

<meta name="breezy-pdf-callback" content="myWorkHereIsDoneCallback">
<meta name="breezy-pdf-timeout" content="3000">

function() {
    // My hard working JS here
    window.myWorkHereIsDoneCallback();
}

Event

A JavaScript event which will be dispatched on an element when the document is ready for PDF rendering. Optional CSS element selector can be specified, defaulting to document. Optional timeout can be specified in ms, defaulting to 5000ms.

<meta name="breezy-pdf-event" content="myCustomEvent">
<meta name="breezy-pdf-element" content="#myContainer">
<meta name="breezy-pdf-timeout" content="3000">

var event = new CustomEvent('myCustomEvent');
var element = document.getElementBydId('myContainer');

element.dispatchEvent(event);

Element

The CSS selector of an element which will be inserted into the document when the document is ready for PDF rendering. Optional timeout can be specified in ms, defaulting to 5000ms.

<meta name="breezy-pdf-element" content="#last-page > #last-element">
<meta name="breezy-pdf-timeout" content="3000">

function() {
    // My hard working JS here
    var lastPage    = document.getElementById('#last-page');
    var lastElement = document.createElement('div');
    
    lastElement.id = 'last-element';
    
    lastPage.appendChild(lastElement);
}

Variable

The variable in the global namespace which will be defined when the document is ready for PDF rendering. Optional timeout can be specified in ms, defaulting to 5000ms.

<meta name="breezy-pdf-variable" content="myWorkHereIsDoneVariable">

function() {
    // My hard working JS here
    window.myWorkHereIsDoneVariable = true;
}

Timer

The predefined amount of time to wait before the document is rendered to PDF. Timer should be specified in ms, defaulting to 5000ms.

<meta name="breezy-pdf-timer" content="10000">

Deployment

Heroku

1. Deploy to Heroku with one-click.

Clients

• Ruby/Rack/Rails
• PHP
• Node.js
• Browserside JS
• Java
• Swift
• Python
• Go

Docker

docker run -it -p 5002:5002 -e "DEBUG=breezy-pdf-lite:*" -e "PORT=5002" -e "PRIVATE_TOKEN=YOURSUPERSECRETTOKEN" danielwestendorf/breezy-pdf-lite:latest

Non-Heroku

1. Install node & yarn
2. yarn install
3. Set the Environment variables specified below
4. Start the web process node index.js

Configuration

Set the Environment/Heroku Config Vars

ENV Variable	Default Value	Description
PRIVATE_TOKEN	generated secret	A private key for accessing the API.

Set DEBUG Config var to breezy-pdf-lite:* to get debugged output.

Run Tests

$ /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --interpreter none --headless --disable-gpu --disable-translate --disable-extensions --disable-background-networking --safebrowsing-disable-auto-update --disable-sync --metrics-recording-only --disable-default-apps --no-first-run --mute-audio --hide-scrollbars --remote-debugging-port=9222

$ npm test