Generating a PDF using popen and wkhtmltopdf

rubyonrails-talk
#1

As described on wkhtmltopdf Google group
(http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/issues/detail?id=162), I have a
problem generating a PDF while using popen and wkhtmltopdf.

wkhtmltopdf takes HTML code as input and ouputs a PDF file. Here is what
I'm doing:

    command = '"C:\Program Files\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltopdf.exe" - - -q'
    IO.popen(command, 'r+') do |f|

      # Writing the html previously rendered in a string
      f.write(html_output)
      f.close_write

      # Reading the ouput and closing
      pdf = f.readlines
      f.close

      # Returning the pdf data
      pdf

    end

This code results in a corrupted PDF file. I checked the PDF itself
which shows some differences with a valid PDF file, like some missing
closing tags (endstream) - but I'm not an expert of that format.

Well, my question is the following: am I doing it wrong, using a wrong
method, missing something, or wkhtmltopdf is more likely to be the
problem?

I attached the corrupted file.

If you have a look at it, you'll notice that a PDF EOF symbol is there,
which tends to say that the generation was not interrupted in any way.

Any idea?

Thanks for your help!

- Nicolas

Attachments:
http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/4453/corrupted.pdf

#2

(reposted due to typo... )

Hi Nicolas,

Whenever I generate pdfs from a rails app using wkhtmltopdf (or
princexml), I usually call wkhtmltopdf using an app_url (ie
wkhtmltopdf hits the web app to get the html/css/imgs/... to be used
to gen the pdf), something like the following:

  # in some controller ....
  require 'timeout'
  ..
  TIMEOUT_SECS = 5
  ...
  def gen_pdf
    app_url = .... # the url to gen the pdf from.
    fname = .... # the name of the resulting pdf.
    ftype = "application/pdf"
               # combat shell injection?
    app_url = app_url.to_s.gsub(/["'\s`$;><&\|\(\)\\\[\]]/, '')
    s = nil
               # valid url?
    unless (app_url =~ URI::regexp).nil?
      begin
        timeout(TIMEOUT_SECS) do
               # gen pdf from url.
          s = `wkhtmltopdf -q "#{app_url}" -`.chomp
        end
      rescue Exception => e
        ... # log, render/redirect err msg, ...
      end
    end
               # invalid pdf?
    if not s.to_s =~ /^%PDF/
      ... # log, render/redirect err msg, ....
    end
    send_data(s, :type=>ftype, :filename=>fname); return
  end
  ...

Jeff

#3

Thanks for your answer Jeff. I'll give it a try in my own app and see
whether it's working or not. I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,

- Nicolas