Using PDFKIT to generate PDF using nodejs

Question

I wrote a node.js server to generate and PDF using pdfkit and return it without saving to a file:

var http = require('http');
var PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');

var server = http.createServer();

server.on('request', function(request, response) {
    console.log('request - ' + new Date());
    buildReport(request, response);
});

server.listen(3000);

console.log('Servidor iniciado em localhost:3000. Ctrl+C para encerrar…');

function buildReport(request, response) {
    var PDFDoc = new PDFDocument();

    response.writeHead(200, {
        'Content-Type': 'application/pdf',
        'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*'
    });

    PDFDoc.pipe(response);

    PDFDoc.font('fonts/DroidSans.ttf')
          .fontSize(25)
          .text('Some text with an embedded font!', 100, 100);

    // Finalize PDF file
    PDFDoc.end();
}

If I go to the browser and type http:\\localhost:3000 it works fine. The PDF appears on the browser window.

But the problem is that I have to put the result of this request inside an iframe. This next line works:

$('#iframe').attr('src', 'http://localhost:3000');

But since I have to pass parameters to the server I'm using ajax and then it does not work. On the client side I have:

$.ajax({
    url: 'http://localhost:3000',
    data: {
        reportData: reportData,
        reportMetadata: reportMetadata,
        reportLogo: reportLogo
    }
}).done(function(data) {
    $('#iframe').attr('src', data);
});

but this does not work. I tried alter the done function to:

.done(function(data) {
    var PDFOutput = 'data:application/pdf;charset=UTF-8,'+data;
    $('#iframe').attr('src', PDFOutput);
});

but it does not work either...

The value returned to the data variable inside done function is a string that starts with:

"%PDF-1.3 %���� 5 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 1 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 612 792] /Contents 3 0 R /Resources 4 0 R >> endobj 4 0 obj << /ProcSet [/PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI] /Font << /F2 6 0 R >> >> endobj 7 0 obj << /Producer (PDFKit) /Creator (PDFKit) /CreationDate (D:20151010210841Z) >> endobj 9 0 obj << /Type /FontDesc (...)

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance!

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 10 '15 at 21:23

0

You cannot do something like that.

In your done function, data contains the body of your PDF file.

An iframe is supposed to load content from an url, so with your JQuery, just change the src attribute like this :

$('#iframe').attr('src', 'http://localhost:3000?reportData='+reportData+'& reportMetadata='+reportMetadata+'&reportLogo='+reportLogo);

As you can't POST data to an iframe (not by a clean way) you will have to use GET parameters. Maybe the datas your are passing are to heavy to be passed by GET so you will have to find an another way...

answered Nov 10 '15 at 21:23

Raphaël Vigée

2,048
14
27

Thanks Raphael... This solution works, but I was wondering, in fact, if I can't transform the body of my PDF to an object URL like `data:application/PDF;base64,AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....` – zedmartins Nov 10 '15 at 21:29
I don't think it would be possible because a PDF file is something huge which can exceed the URL length limit (http://stackoverflow.com/a/417184/3212099). Also it would be a performance-killer doing that. – Raphaël Vigée Nov 10 '15 at 21:30

Using PDFKIT to generate PDF using nodejs

1 Answers1