As a developer, I sometimes need to create PDF reports for my applications. Creating those entirely by programming can be cumbersome and every library is a bit different. Finally, getting things to look like the designer wanted can be challenging. Wouldn't it be nice if we can make it look like the design without spending a ton of time on it? Designers and frontenders can usually do HTML and CSS, so it makes sense to utilize HTML. But websites usually don't look great when printed out and are not designed for multiple pages. We have come up with a solution, which we believe addresses all of the above. Meet UniHTML combined with UniPDF is a new plugin for , one of our flagship libraries at . UniHTML UniPDF UniDoc It is a container-based solution with a Go driver, as per the schematic: The Docker image is on Docker Hub. publicly available The UniPDF creator package enables and . The UniHTML container-based module has a flexible web-rendering engine and in unison with UniPDF this brings together the capability to add full HTML support to UniPDF report generation. creating flexible PDF reports invoices Trying it out Let's try it out. Step 1. Create a free metered API key. This is easy, simply signing up on for an account and creating a metered API key in the UI. https://cloud.unidoc.io For step-by-step instructions on this, see: How to sign up for UniCloud How to generate a metered API key Step 2. Get the UniHTML container running Unable to find image 'unidoccloud/unihtml:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from unidoccloud/unihtml
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Digest: sha256:c1c69af194358179d836a648f07f71af07ed0c968938abe3a3e2550e49980728
Status: Downloaded newer image for unidoccloud/unihtml:latest
[INFO]  server.go:173 Listening private API on: :8081
[INFO]  server.go:164 Listening public API on: :8080 $ docker run -p 8080:8080 -e UNIDOC_METERED_API_KEY=mymeteredkey unidoccloud/unihtml Step 3. Running an example. Inspired by the blog post we put together the following HTML file to illustrate a PDF report with HTML tables. Creating beautiful HTML tables with CSS sample.html Name Points Dom 6000 Melissa 5150 < > html < > head < > style { : collapse; : ; : ; : sans-serif; : ; : (0, 0, 0, 0.15);
} { : ; : ; : left;
} , { : ;
} { : solid ;
} { : ;
} { : solid ;
} { : bold; : ;
} .styled-table border-collapse margin 25px 0 font-size 0.9em font-family min-width 400px box-shadow 0 0 20px rgba .styled-table thead tr background-color #009879 color #ffffff text-align .styled-table th .styled-table td padding 12px 15px .styled-table tbody tr border-bottom 1px #dddddd .styled-table tbody tr :nth-of-type(even) background-color #f3f3f3 .styled-table tbody tr :last-of-type border-bottom 2px #009879 .styled-table tbody tr .active-row font-weight color #009879 </ > style </ > head < = > table class "styled-table" < > thead < > tr < > th </ > th < > th </ > th </ > tr </ > thead < > tbody < > tr < > td </ > td < > td </ > td </ > tr < = > tr class "active-row" < > td </ > td < > td </ > td </ > tr  </ > tbody </ > table </ > html example.go main ( ) { err := license.SetMeteredKey( ); err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    } err := unihtml.Connect( ); err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    } c := creator.New() c.AddTOC = chapter := c.NewChapter( ) htmlDocument, err := unihtml.NewDocument( ) err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    } err = chapter.Add(htmlDocument); err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    } err = c.Draw(chapter); err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    } err = c.WriteToFile( ); err != {
        fmt.Printf( , err)
        os.Exit( )
    }
} package import "fmt" "os" "github.com/unidoc/unihtml" "github.com/unidoc/unipdf/v3/common/license" "github.com/unidoc/unipdf/v3/creator" func main () // Set the UniDoc license. if "my api key goes here" nil "Err: setting metered key failed: %v\n" 1 // Establish connection with the UniHTML Server. if ":8080" nil "Err:  Connect failed: %v\n" 1 // Get new PDF Creator. // AddTOC enables Table of Contents generation. true "Points" // Read the content of the sample.html file and load it to the conversion. "sample.html" if nil "Err: NewDocument failed: %v\n" 1 // Draw the html document file in the context of the creator. if nil "Err: Draw failed: %v\n" 1 if nil "Err: Draw failed: %v\n" 1 // Write the result file to PDF. if "sample.pdf" nil "Err: %v\n" 1 Results Running the result: $ go run example.go creates sample.pdf which looks like: We note that we also have the table of contents, which is critical for a quality PDF production and the bookmarks that link to each chapter in the PDF. Headers and footers can also be created easily. Conclusion UniHTML brings the ease of HTML to PDF report creation in UniPDF with a full rendering engine. This will make the process of PDF report generation really easy for teams that already have a HTML design and need to add professional PDF reports, where a plain PDF print-out of a website is not sufficient. Previously published at https://www.unidoc.io/post/html-for-pdf-reports-in-go

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