Symfony 1.4 with TCPDF: How to retrieve data from a database and show it as a .pdf file?

Question

I work with Symfony 1.4. I want to create a pdf file using TCPDF with the content of a query involving multiple tables. Here my code in the actions.class.php:

Answer 1

Here the solution I encountered: I've separated the problem in two. First, I built an actions with the query: the actions have called executeTest (see the code below)

public function executeTest()
{ 
     $this->conflictos1s = Doctrine_Core::getTable('Conflictos1')
      ->createQuery('a') 
      ->leftJoin('a.SectorActividadCiuTa7')     
      ->leftJoin('a.RelacionConflictualPrincipalTa9') 
      ->leftJoin('a.SubsectorActividadTa8')       
       ->leftJoin('a.DemandasTa2')      
       ->leftJoin('a.ActoresTa1')     
       ->leftJoin('a.Conflictos1HasActoresTa1')    
      ->orderBy('a.Id')
      ->execute();  
}   

Then I built a template named testSuccess.php. So far nothing new in Symfony 1.4. But in this template, I added the following lines of code. At first:

<?php ob_start(); ?>

Last of all, in the template I wrote:

<?php $posts = ob_get_contents(); ?>

<?php ob_end_clean(); ?>

The view content is recorded in the variable $posts

//testSuccess.php

<?php ob_start(); ?>


<h2>Listado de Conflictos</h2>
<table cellspacing="1" border="1">       
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th width="2%">Id</th>
       <th width="6%">Fecha comienzo</th>
      <th>Relacion conflictual principal</th>
      <th>Sector actividad</th>
      <th>Subsector actividad</th>
      <th>Demandas</th>      
      <th width="20%">Descripcion-general</th>
      <th>Descripcion protagonista</th>
      <th>Descripcion antagonista</th>
      <th>Descripcion demandaprinc</th>
      <th>Nivel estado</th>
      <th>Descripcion sector</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
  <?php foreach ($conflictos1s as $conflictos1): ?>
    <tr>
      <td width="2%"><?php echo $conflictos1->getId() ?></td>
      <td width="6%"><?php echo date('d/m/Y', strtotime($conflictos1->getFechaComienzo())) ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getRelacionConflictualPrincipalTa9() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getSectorActividadCiuTa7() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getSubsectorActividadTa8() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getDemandasTa2() ?></td>
       <td width="20%"><?php echo substr($conflictos1->getDescripcionGeneral(),0,60).'...' ?></td> 
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getDescripcionProtagonista() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getDescripcionAntagonista() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getDescripcionDemandaprinc() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getNivelEstado() ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $conflictos1->getDescripcionSector() ?></td>   
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>      
  </tbody>
</table>
<?php $posts = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); ?>
<?php $sf_user->setAttribute('para_pdf', $posts); ?>
 <a href="<?php echo url_for('conflictos/testpdf') ?>">Generar Pdf</a>

This idea was taken from the answer by https://stackoverflow.com/users/1029908/alexey-gerasimov here:

Using PHP with TCPDF to retrieve data(using mysql) from a database and show it as a .pdf file

In this template we generate the view and capture everything the browser "write". I add a link to generate now the PDF <a href="<?php echo url_for('conflictos/testpdf') ?>">Generar Pdf</a>. It passes the contents of the variable $posts to new actions testpdf, through Symfony's user class:

<?php $sf_user->setAttribute('para_pdf', $posts); ?>

It call for a new actions named testpdf. In the new action executeTestpdf, pay attention to the following line of code, which retrieve the value of the variable $posts:

$ html = $ this-> getUser () -> getAttribute ('para_pdf');

public function executeTestpdf()
{       
  $config = sfTCPDFPluginConfigHandler::loadConfig();

  // pdf object
  $pdf = new sfTCPDF();

  // set document information
  $pdf->SetCreator(PDF_CREATOR);
  $pdf->SetAuthor('J. H.');
  $pdf->SetTitle('TCPDF Example 001');
  $pdf->SetSubject('TCPDF Tutorial');
  $pdf->SetKeywords('TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide');

  // set default header data
 $pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE.' 001', PDF_HEADER_STRING);

  // set header and footer fonts
  $pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
  $pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));

  // set default monospaced font
  $pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

  //set margins
  $pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
  $pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
  $pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);

  //set auto page breaks
  $pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);

  //set image scale factor
  $pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);

  // ---------------------------------------------------------
 $pdf->setPageOrientation("L");


  // set default font subsetting mode
  $pdf->setFontSubsetting(true);

  // Set font
  $pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 6);

  // Add a page
  // This method has several options, check the source code documentation for more information.

$pdf->AddPage();

$pdf->Write(0, '', '', 0, 'L', true, 0, false, false, 0);


  // Set some content to print


 $html = $this->getUser()->getAttribute('para_pdf');


  $pdf->writeHTML($html, true, false, false, false, '');

  // ---------------------------------------------------------

  // Close and output PDF document
  // This method has several options, check the source code documentation for more information.
  $pdf->Output('example_conflictos.pdf', 'I');

  // Stop symfony process
  throw new sfStopException();
}

Then, finally I have the PDF generated with all data properly shown!.