Codeigniter 4 Generate PDF Example Tutorial

In this article, we will explain to you how to generate PDF in CodeIgniter 4(Codeigniter 4 Generate PDF Example Tutorial). we can easily generate the pdf file in CodeIgniter 4.

In this example, we will use the Dompdf package library to create a pdf in Codeigniter. we can also Generate Dynamically HTML to PDF File using dompdf in Codeigniter 4. so you can see our following example.

Overview
Step 1: Download Codeigniter
Step 2: Basic Configurations
Step 3: Create a Database in table
Step 4: Connect to Database
Step 5: Install DOMPdf Package
Step 6: Create Controller and Model
Step 7: Create Views Files
Step 8: Run The Application

Step 1: Download Codeigniter
If you want to download or install the latest version of CodeIgniter 4 then you can go to Codeigniter’s official site and download the latest version of Codeigniter 4. after the downloaded you can configure in “xampp/htdocs/” directory.

Step 2: Basic Configurations
If you want to Basic Configurations in your project then you can below Url.
Codeigniter 4 Removing Index.Php From Url

Step 3: Create a Database in table
In this step, We will create the database and table.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `students` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `first_name` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `last_name` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `address` text NOT NULL,
  `email` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `mobile` varchar(12) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=1;

INSERT INTO `students` (`id`, `first_name`, `last_name`, `address`, `email`, `mobile`) VALUES
(1, 'john', 'doe', 'USA', '[email protected]', '787878787'),
(2, 'kal', 'mark', 'CANADA', '[email protected]', '7887878787'),
(3, 'James', 'Mary', 'USA', '[email protected]', '4364373434'),
(4, 'William', 'Elizabeth', 'USA', '[email protected]', '7878787'),
(5, 'Matthew', 'Betty', 'USA', '[email protected]', '898989'),
(6, 'Anthony', 'Margaret', 'INDIA', '[email protected]', '8989898989'),
(7, 'Donald', 'Ashley', 'CANADA', '[email protected]', '3343434345'),
(8, 'Kevin', 'Carol', 'USA', '[email protected]', '2223334445');

Step 4: Connect to Database
Go to the “app/Config/Database.php” folder and open the database.php file some changes in this file like hostname, database username, database password, and database name.

	public $default = [
		'DSN'      => '',
		'hostname' => 'localhost',
		'username' => 'root',
		'password' => '',
		'database' => 'codeigniter4_pagination',
		'DBDriver' => 'MySQLi',
		'DBPrefix' => '',
		'pConnect' => false,
		'DBDebug'  => (ENVIRONMENT !== 'production'),
		'cacheOn'  => false,
		'cacheDir' => '',
		'charset'  => 'utf8',
		'DBCollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
		'swapPre'  => '',
		'encrypt'  => false,
		'compress' => false,
		'strictOn' => false,
		'failover' => [],
		'port'     => 3306,
	];

Step 5: Install DOMPdf Package
In this step, We will install the dompdf package vie composer for the generate pdf in codeigniter 4 application. so you can follow our composer command.

composer require dompdf/dompdf

After that, open the app/Config/Autoload.php file and look for the $psr4 array, here you have to register the dompdf service.

public $psr4 = [
    APP_NAMESPACE => APPPATH, // For custom app namespace
    'Config'      => APPPATH . 'Config',
    'Dompdf'      => APPPATH . 'ThirdParty/dompdf/src',
];

Step 6: Create Controller and Model
In this step, we will create the “Student.php” controller and the “StudentModel.php” model.
app/Controllers/Student.php

<?php 

namespace App\Controllers;
 
use CodeIgniter\Controller;
use App\Models\StudentModel;
 
class Student extends Controller
{
 
    public function __construct()
    {
        
    }
    public function index()
    {   
	$model = new StudentModel(); 
 
        $data = [
            'students' => $model->orderBy('id', 'DESC')->findAll()
        ];
        
        return view('list', $data);
    }
	
    function convertToPdf(){
	$model = new StudentModel(); 
	$data = $model->orderBy('id', 'DESC')->findAll();
		
        $dompdf = new \Dompdf\Dompdf();
	// Sending data to view file
        $dompdf->loadHtml(view('list', ["students" => $data]));		
        $dompdf->setPaper('A4', 'landscape');
        $dompdf->render();
        $dompdf->stream();
    }  
 
}

?>

app/Models/StudentModel.php

<?php 
namespace App\Models;
use CodeIgniter\Database\ConnectionInterface;
use CodeIgniter\Model;
 
class StudentModel extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'Students';
 
    protected $allowedFields = ['first_name','last_name','address','email', 'mobile'];
}
?>

Step 7: Create Views Files
Finally, we will create the list.php in the app/views directory.

app/views/list.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Codeigniter 4 Generate PDF Example Tutorial - XpertPhp</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/css/bootstrap.min.css">
  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.16.0/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<div class="container">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-md-9">
				<h2>List Student</h2>
			</div>
			<div class="col-md-3">
				<a class="btn btn-dark" href="<?php echo site_url('student/convertToPdf') ?>">
					Convert to PDF
				</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-md-9">
				<table class="table table-bordered">
				 <thead>
					<tr>
					   <th>Id</th>
					   <th>First Name</th>
					   <th>Last Name</th>
					   <th>Email</th>
					   <th>Mobile</th>
					</tr>
				 </thead>
				 <tbody>
					<?php if($students): ?>
					<?php foreach($students as $student): ?>
					<tr>
					   <td><?php echo $student['id']; ?></td>
					   <td><?php echo $student['first_name']; ?></td>
					   <td><?php echo $student['last_name']; ?></td>
					   <td><?php echo $student['email']; ?></td>
					   <td><?php echo $student['mobile']; ?></td>
					</tr>
				   <?php endforeach; ?>
				   <?php endif; ?>
				 </tbody>
			   </table>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</body>
</html>

Step 8: Run The Application
We can start the server and run the codeigniter 4 application using the below command.

php spark serve

Now we will run our example using the below Url in the browser.

http://localhost:8080/student

If you liked this article, you can also download it through our Github Repository.