Generate PDF Add-On

Usage

There are multiple ways to incorporate PDF rendering of your Foswiki topics or topic hierarchies:

• The simplest way to activate PDF printing, is to add genpdf to front of the SKIN setting. This will replace the PatternSkin 'Print Version' on the lower action bar with 'Generate PDF', eliminating the HTML printable view of the topic.
  • eg Set SKIN=genpdf,pattern (add ?skin=genpdf,pattern to the end of the URL to test)
• A page can also be published by substituting genpdf for view in the topic URL. (If using short URLs, insert /bin/genpdf/ prior to the Web name).
• To make it even easier for novice Foswiki users to use, you can add a link (like edit and attach) to view.tmpl to publish the current page (using the current topic as the document title). For example:

  <a href="%SCRIPTURLPATH%/genpdf%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%?pdftitle=%TOPIC%">PDF</a>

• Another option is to create a global variable that inserts a PDF ICON in the document. The following variable is expanded in the upper-right corner of this page. You can click it to get a PDF of this page. If you set this in your SitePreferences topic, it can be used in any topic.

   * Set GENPDFLINK=<span style="margin:0 0 2em 5em; width:64px height:64px; text-align:center; float:right">
   [[%SCRIPTURL{"genpdf"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%?%QUERYSTRING%][<img src="%PUBURL%/System/GenPDFAddOn/pdf-64.gif">]]
   </span>

• You may also choose to replace the Printable (?skin=print) targets in your favourite skin with

[[%SCRIPTURL{genpdf}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%][Printable]]

GenPDFPlugin helper plugin

• Simulated: https://wiki.alexander-weimer.com/bin/genpdf/System/GenPDFAddOn
• If Installed: https://wiki.alexander-weimer.com/bin/genpdf/System/GenPDFAddOnPlugin

• Simulated: https://wiki.alexander-weimer.com/bin/genpdf/System/WebHome
• If Installed: https://wiki.alexander-weimer.com/bin/genpdf/System/WebHome

• Simulated: WebHome
• If Installed: WebHome

Configuring the Script

The script can be configured using URL parameters and/or web preference variables. URL parameters have precedence over web preference variables. If neither of these are present, the script will use hard-coded default variables. The general script configuration variables are explained in the next section while header/footer and title page configuration are explained in subsequent sections.

General Configuration

The following table shows the various configuration variables and their meaning. The first column gives the variable to use if passed in the URL. The second column shows the variable to use if using a Foswiki preference variable (i.e. Set VARIABLE = ). The third column gives the default value if neither the URL nor Foswiki preference variable is used. Note that URL variables have precedence over Foswiki preference variables.

If using Foswiki preference variables, copy them to the appropriate web preferences page. This plugin does not read settings from this topic!

• Settings for the GenPDFAddOn Plugin
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_BANNER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TITLE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_SUBTITLE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADERTOPIC =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TITLETOPIC =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TITLEDOC =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_SKIN =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_COVER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_CHARSET =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_RECURSIVE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_FORMAT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TOCLEVELS =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_PAGESIZE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_ORIENTATION =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_WIDTH =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADERSHIFT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_KEYWORDS =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_SUBJECT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TOCTITLE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TOCHEADER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TOCFOOTER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_BODYFONT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADINGFONT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TEXTFONT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_FOOTER =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADFOOTFONT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_HEADFOOTSIZE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_BODYIMAGE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_LOGOIMAGE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_NUMBEREDTOC =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_DUPLEX =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_PERMISSIONS =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_MARGINS =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_BODYCOLOR =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_TEMPLATE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_COPYRIGHT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_DEBUG =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_FIRSTPAGE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_DESTINATION =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_PAGELAYOUT =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_PAGEMODE =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_COMPRESS =
  • #Set GENPDFADDON_JPEGQUALITY =

Limiting the PDF Generation Region

The add-on allows the user to define the region of the topic that should be included in the PDF generation (much like the Foswiki %STARTINCLUDE% and %STOPINCLUDE% variables. In this case, HTML comments are used instead. Everything between these two comments will be included in the PDF generation. The rest of topic will be excluded.

• Use <!-- PDFSTART -→ to mark the starting point in the topic for PDF generation.
• Use <!-- PDFSTOP -→ to mark the stopping point in the topic for PDF generation.

Creating and Configuring a Title Page

The add-on allows the user to use a topic as a title page for PDF generation. Earlier versions of the add-on required that the title page be expressed using pure HTML as the title page topic was not Foswiki rendered. The latest version of add-on, however, does full Foswiki rendering of the title topic page like any other Foswiki topic. In addition, the following variables can be passed with the URL to override their settings elsewhere (e.g. in the web preferences or Foswiki preferences pages).

Creating and Configuring Headers and Footers

The add-on also allows the user to configure header and footer formats for both the main section of the document and the table of contents. Configuring the main header and footer is much like configuring a title page. You can select a Foswiki topic to use for the header and footer. Remember to wrap the HTML comments that HTMLDOC uses for the header and footer between <!-- PDFSTART -→ and <!-- PDFSTOP -→ tags. The add-on will perform Foswiki common variable substition within the HTMLDOC header/footer HTML comments. This will allow Foswiki variables (such as %REVINFO{web="%WEB%" topic="%BASETOPIC%"}%) to be embedded in the headers and footers.

Note that HTMLDOC will not generate a page header on any page generated by a Level 1 header (---+ header). This is a known issue in htmldoc through version 1.27. A patch is provided further on in this page.

Recursive rendering of topics

• The default behavior is to render each topic as a separate chapter. A level 1 heading will be added as required to each topic.
• Child topics are sorted into alphabetical order by topic name
• If the pdfheadershift option is set to auto, then the first header in each topic will be set to the absolute depth of the child topic in the tree. In this case the PDF will consist of only a single chapter.
• Any topic can be promoted a level in the hierarchy by including the HTML comment <!-- TOC PROMOTE -→ anywhere in the topic.
  • Promoted Child topics will appear after all other children have been expanded.
  • The actual parent of the topic is not changed, so topics cannot be promoted more than one level without breaking the topic sort order.
• Child topics are not found across web boundarys.

ParentTopic
   - FirstChild
      - GrandChildOne
      - GrandChildTwo
   - SecondChild
      - GrandChildThree
   - ThirdChild

1 ParentTopic
2 FirstChild
3 GrandChildOne
4 GrandChildTwo
5 SecondChild
6 GrandChildThree
7 ThirdChild

1 ParentTopic
 1.1 FirstChild
  1.1.1 GrandChildOne
  1.1.2 GrandChildTwo
 1.2 SecondChild
  1.2.1 GrandChildThree
 1.3 ThirdChild

1 ParentTopic
 1.1 FirstChild
  1.1.1 GrandChildOne
  1.1.2 GrandChildTwo
 1.2 ThirdChild 
2 SecondChild
 2.1 GrandChildThree

Generating PDF from a older revision of a topic.

Limitations

• Specifying a topic revision will disable the recursive option.
• The revision is only applied to the primary topic. All other related topics - title pages, includes, attachments, etc. use the current revision.
• Any in-topic settings GENPDFADDON_* will be taken from the curent version and not from the requested topic revision.

PDF Logos

The following Public Domain PDF Icons can be used to represent PDF files:

• 32x32 Images
  pdf-32.gif
  pdf-32.png

• 64x64 Images
  pdf-64.gif
  pdf-64.png

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I stop the table of contents from being generated?

For some topics, like User topics, it doesn't make any sense to have a table of contents generated so add 'pdftoclevels=0' as a URL parameter.

When I do a recursive PDF of WebHome it doesn't include all topics

That's because some topics distributed with Foswiki don't have a parent association. If you really want to include every topic in the web, you should reparent them all with WebHome as the parent.

Ocassionally no PDF document is generated

The default structure of book requires that headings be present in the topic. Try setting pdfstruct=webpage

Add-On Installation Instructions

Before you upgrade!

• This version moves the GenPDFAddOn examples and demo topics from the %System web to the Sandbox web. Old versions of these topics can be removed %from the System web after the upgrade.
• The hard-coded pdftoclevel=0 in the view.genpdf.tmpl file has been removed. An alternative approach is to set GENPDFADDON_TOCLEVELS=0 in SitePreferences
• This version ships with a GenPDFPlugin. This is a helper plugin which will expand the %GENPDF% tag, and does not need to be enabled. See GenPDFPlugin for more information
• This version renames lib/Foswiki/Contrib/GenPDF.pm to lib/Foswiki/Contrib/GenPDFAddOn.pm A shim version of GenPDF.pm is shipped so that existing configurations will still work without requiring any configuration changes to =lib/LocalSite.cfg

Standard installation

• Install htmldoc from http://www.htmldoc.org/ (optionally use the patch in the Addon's zip file for headers on every page)
• Access the bin/configure script - Extensions tab, click "Find Extensions", locate GenPDFAddOn in the table and click "Install"
• In the bin/configure script, visit the GenPDFAddOn settings and optionally set the path to the htmldoc command. If this is not set, the plugin will look for htmldoc in the default path.
  • You must go through a save cycle in bin/configure in order to set the required hidden Switchboard entry even if you have not changed any settings!
• Windows Users: Edit the bin/genpdf script and update the "shebang" #!/bin/perl to match your system perl location
  
  • Example: #!C:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe
• Important Security considerations
  • The genpdf script should be added to the AuthScripts list in bin/configure
  • if you use Apache user authentication, be sure to also add genpdf to the list of restricted scripts in the apache configuration.
• Copy any desired preferences from above and paste them into SitePreferences, or the WebPreferences topic for a single web.
• Test if the installation was successful:
  • Try loading this page
    • If you get a 404 - not found, make sure that a switchboard entry exists in LocalSite.cfg.
  • If it doesn't work, check your webserver logs for any problems. The most common issue is probably an htmldoc installation problem.
  • Another test topic is found in Sandbox/GenPDFAddOnDemo

Alternative installation

• Download the tgz or zip file and the GenPDFAddOn_installer file from the Add-on Home (see below)
• Run the installer ( perl GenPDFAddOn _installer ) or unzip GenPDFAddOn.zip in your Foswiki installation directory
• Adjust the script ownership to match your webserver configuration (e.g. chown nobody genpdf) if needed.
• Make sure the script is executable (e.g chmod 755 genpdf).
• Adjust the perl path in the genpdf script to match your perl installation location.
• Configure the $Foswiki::cfg{Extensions}{GenPDFAddOn}{htmldocCmd} = "/path/to/htmldoc"; using configure (in the Extensions section)
  • You must visit and save the Foswiki configuration at least once after installation to set a hidden variable in the LocalSite.cfg file
  • See the Configuration file settings below.

Configuration file settings

$Foswiki::cfg{Extensions}{GenPDFPlugin}{htmldocCmd} = '/usr/bin/htmldoc';
$Foswiki::cfg{SwitchBoard}{genpdf} = {
          'function' => 'viewPDF',
          'context' => {
                         'view' => 1
                         'static' => 1
                       },
          'package' => 'Foswiki::Contrib::GenPDF'
        };

Known Bugs

• Verbatim text runs off the page. This is a limitation of HTMLDOC. Preformatted text may run off the edge of the page and be truncated.
• HTMLDOC crashes with segmentation faults. Eg it fails to generate CompleteDocumentation. I managed to get it to work a few times, but it generally fails. The error returned is Conversion failed: 'Inappropriate ioctl for device' at /var/www/Foswiki/lib/Foswiki/Contrib/GenPDF.pm line XXX
• Some pages don't have a header. HTMLDOC breaks the page for every level 1 heading (Eg. <h1>) but it doesn't write a header for the new page, so topics with lots of level 1 headings and not much content don't seem to have any headers. Therefore I patched htmldoc-1.8.24 to force a header for every new page:

*** htmldoc-1.8.24/htmldoc/ps-pdf.cxx   Sat Oct 30 05:53:59 2004
--- htmldoc-1.8.24/htmldoc/ps-pdf_force_header.cxx      Tue Jun 13 02:12:28 2005
***************
*** 1465,1471 ****

      pspdf_prepare_heading(page, print_page, pages[page].header, top,
                            page_text, sizeof(page_text),
!                         page > chapter_starts[chapter] ||
                              OutputType != OUTPUT_BOOK);
      pspdf_prepare_heading(page, print_page, pages[page].footer, 0,
                            page_text, sizeof(page_text));
--- 1465,1472 ----

      pspdf_prepare_heading(page, print_page, pages[page].header, top,
                            page_text, sizeof(page_text),
! /*                      page > chapter_starts[chapter] || */
!                         1 || /* force heading onto chapter front page */
                              OutputType != OUTPUT_BOOK);
      pspdf_prepare_heading(page, print_page, pages[page].footer, 0,
                            page_text, sizeof(page_text));

Add-On Info