Generating image from PHP variable which contains HTML code when run through cron

Question

I've PHP variable which contains some HTML code. For the sake of presentation, let's say the variable contains

// abc.php file
$table =  '<table>';
$table .=    '<tr><td>Hi there!</td></tr>';
$table .=    '<tr><td>How are you</td></tr>';
$table .= '</table>';
echo $table;

I'm planning to run abc.php through a cron job. So is it possible that the output that is to be generated by abc.php be converted into an image and get stored in a folder?

So basically when abc.php is done parsing, an image should be created when the cron job finishes. Is this even possible?

PS : I've looked at Phantomjs which seems ideally designed for such a task, but there are a few problems with it:

(a) It's platform dependent (Windows, Linux, Mac OS etc)

(b) I want to avoid using a .exe file on my server.

At least, you have to have "headless" web-browser to render content. Another option is to draw the table manually using `gd`. — Mikhail Chernykh, Mar 30 '13 at 14:29
There are at least 2 similar topics: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1963900/php-library-for-converting-html-to-image , http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13039627/convert-html-to-image-in-php-without-shell — Mikhail Chernykh, Mar 30 '13 at 14:34
Does it have to be saved as an image? Can't you just save the output as a static html file? — jszobody, Mar 30 '13 at 14:35
@jszobody It has to be saved as an image as it will used in a ppt file later. — asprin, Mar 30 '13 at 14:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 09 '13 at 15:29

0

If you need only tables, it will be easier to you save the output as .xls file, which you'll can include to ppt file when you'll need it.

answered Apr 09 '13 at 15:29

Dmitriy Abramov

1

Generating image from PHP variable which contains HTML code when run through cron

1 Answers1