Laravel – Generate PDF file from view

Last updated on February 17, 2018

We gonna use barryvdh/laravel-dompdf Laravel package to generate PDF files from view file. This package is just a wrapper around DOMPDF library.

Installtion

Use below composer command to install the package

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

After installing laravel-dompdf, add the ServiceProvider class to the provider’s array in config/app.php

'providers' => [
    Barryvdh\DomPDF\ServiceProvider::class
 ];

You can optionally use the facade for shorter code. So when you need to generate PDF you just need to include it with use PDF, you dont have to metion full namesapce. Add this to your facades array in config/app.php

'aliases' => [
    'PDF' => Barryvdh\DomPDF\Facade::class
]

Great! installation and configuration part is completed. Now let use this package.

Generate a controller called UserController.php with below command

$ php artisan make:controller UserController

After generating controller add following index and report methods to it. Index is to show the list of users and report is to generate PDF and to download the PDF.

 $users]);
    }
    
    public function report(Request $request)
    {
         $users = User::all();
         
        if($request->view_type === 'download') {
            $pdf = PDF::loadView('users.report', ['users' => $users]);
            return $pdf->download('users.pdf');
        } else {
            $view = View('users.report', ['users' => $users]);
            $pdf = \App::make('dompdf.wrapper');
            $pdf->loadHTML($view->render());
            return $pdf->stream();
        }

    }
}

Create a users directory with index.blade.php and report.balde.php files.

index.blade.php

    
        
        
        
        

    
        

            Download PDF
            view PDF
            
                @foreach ($users as $user)
                
                @endforeach
            

                

                    
Name
                    
Email
                

                    
{{ $user->name }}
                    
{{ $user->email }}
                
        
    

report.blade.php

    
        
        
        

        
    
    
        

            
                @foreach ($users as $user)
                
                @endforeach
            

                

                    
Name
                    
Email
                

                    
{{ $user->name }}
                    
{{ $user->email }}
                
        
    

Now define route to access controller methods index and report, add follwing lines to routes/web.php

Route::get('/users', 'UserController@index');
Route::get('/users/report/{view_type}', 'UserController@report');

That’s it. Now, with http://localhost:8000/users/report/view, you can render pdf in the browser, with http://localhost:8000/users/report/download you can download the user’s list pdf.