Nodejs how to generate a pdf file from ejs file

Question

I'm writing a nodejs method which I want to convert an ejs file to a pdf file

router.get("/uknow", (req, res) => {
    ejs.renderFile(path.join(__dirname, "../../views/resultat.ejs"),  (err, data) => {
    if (err) {
          res.send(err);
    } else {
        
        pdf.create(data).toFile("report.pdf", function (err, data) {
            if (err) {
                res.send(err);
            } else {
                res.send("File created successfully");
            }
        });
    }
});
})

this is the method which I wrote and I get this response in post man

{
    "path": "C:\\Users\\HP\\Desktop\\exemple CRUD\\blog_api\\views\\resultat.ejs"
}

i print the error and this is what i get ReferenceError:

C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\views\resultat.ejs:41
    39| </head>
    40| <body class="spacer">
 >> 41|     <h2 class="text-center my-3"><%= data[0].imei.name %></h2>
    42|     <h5 class="text-center my-3">Imei -<%= data[0].imei.name %> </h5>
    43|     <h3 class="text-center my-3">Resultat des tests</h3>
    44|     <hr>

data is not defined
    at eval (eval at compile (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\ejs\lib\ejs.js:661:12), <anonymous>:10:26)
    at resultat (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\ejs\lib\ejs.js:691:17)
    at tryHandleCache (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\ejs\lib\ejs.js:272:36)
    at Object.exports.renderFile (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\ejs\lib\ejs.js:489:10)
    at C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\routes\apis\post.js:121:9
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
    at next (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:137:13)
    at Route.dispatch (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:112:3)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
    at C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:281:22
    at Function.process_params (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:335:12)
    at next (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:275:10)
    at Function.handle (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:174:3)
    at router (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:47:12)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:95:5)
    at trim_prefix (C:\Users\HP\Desktop\exemple CRUD\blog_api\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:317:13) {
  path: 'C:\\Users\\HP\\Desktop\\exemple CRUD\\blog_api\\views\\resultat.ejs'
}

and nothing in the console. I need some help.

Lawrence Cherone · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-13 14:41:51Z

0

Render the file first (with your data), then pass the rendered HTML to the pdf'er

Untested, try this:

router.get("/uknow", (req, res) => {

  // your missing data, wheres it coming from?
  // it should also look like:
  // let data = { data: [{ imei: { name: '', ...}}, ...], ...}

  // render the ejs file
  ejs.renderFile(path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'views', 'resultat.ejs'), data, {}, function(err, str) {
    if (err) return res.send(err);

    // str now contains your rendered html
    pdf.create(str).toFile("report.pdf", function(err, data) {
      if (err) return res.send(err);

      res.send("File created successfully");
    });
  });
});

edited Jun 13, 2020 at 14:41

answered Jun 13, 2020 at 14:37

Lawrence Cherone

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3 Comments

Mohamed Borhene Hamedi Over a year ago

i have no data i just want to change the ejs file to pdf that's it

Lawrence Cherone Over a year ago

then remove all the variables or pass empty values, no undefined vars in ejs

Mohamed Borhene Hamedi Over a year ago

thank you it works i will check how to add data but with empty it's good but it did not take the real size wich try in html

Olamigoke Philip · Accepted Answer · 2024-11-02 04:43:54Z

I was in similar need, i already had configured express-ejs-layouts so i used the default res.render with Google's puppeteer

npm install puppeteer or yarn add puppeteer

My Utility Function

async function generatePDF(ejsContextData) {
      const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
      const page = await browser.newPage();

      const html = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        res.render(
          "my-document-html",
          contextData,
          (err, html) => {
            if (err) {
              reject(err);
            } else {
              resolve(html);
            }
          }
        );
      });

      await page.setContent(html);

      const pdfBuffer = await page.pdf({
        format: "Letter",
        path: "document.pdf",
      });

      await browser.close();
      return pdfBuffer;
    }

I believe you can choose to stream the Buffer to the browser directly or alternatively write to disk if you intend to save this. In my case i needed to show it on the browser. However, if an immediate download is the goal, you may configure your "Content-Disposition" to be an attachment instead

generatePDF(contextData)
      .then((pdfBuffer) => {
        res.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/pdf");
        res.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=document.pdf");

        res.write(pdfBuffer);
        res.end();
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.error(error);
        res.status(500).json({
          status: false,
          error: "Failed to generate PDF.",
        });
      });

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