wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-server

A websocket server that handles pdf generation from html using wkhtmltopdf.

It accepts following requests:

• create for pdf generation: requires options object that can be created using CreateRequest.toObject method, where CreateRequest is a class from wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-entity package. After request is processed server can respond:

  • pdf:create:success with object: {message: String, handle: Integer, debug: String[]: Optional}, where
    • message is "Ok" string.
    • handle is a unique id that can be used to access pdf file at http://server.address/result_{handle}.pdf.
    • debug is an output from wkhtmltopdf. This property exists only if request object from websocket client contains debug property that is true.
  • pdf:create:fail with object: {message: String, handle: Integer, debug: String[]: Optional}, where
    • message contains error message with explanation of why pdf has not been created.
    • handle and debug are the same fields as for pdf:create:success response.

• delete for removing generated pdf from server: requires handle input argument from pdf:create:success response. After this request server will respond:

  • pdf:delete:success without parameters if pdf removed successfully.
  • pdf:delete:fail with error message that describes why file cannot be removed from server.

Requirements

To run server you need:

• wkhtmltopdf with it's dependencies
• nodejs

If you are going to use wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-ws-server on a machine with operating system without graphical environment, then you will need to install display server, for example - xvfb, for wkhtmltopdf.

For your convenience vagrant box with all necessary software has been created. It can be downloaded from https://github.com/GrizliK1988/wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-vagrant

Installation

Run npm install wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-ws-server command.

Usage

Server can be created and started like follows:

var WsServer = require('wkhtmltopdf-nodejs-ws-server');

var server = new WsServer(3000); // <- server will listen requests on *:3000

// or

var server = new WsServer(3000, 'xvfb-run', ['-a', '-s "-screen 0 640x480x16"']); // <- if you are running this script on server machine without graphical environment.

//The 2nd argument is a name and the 3rd is a list of arguments that will be provided to display server

server.start();

Example of websocket client is located here: ...

Running tests

To run unit tests you can use npm test command.