dompdf rendering empty file or doesn't render database rows - php

Question

So if I just render the file like this :
<?php
// Include autoloader
require_once '../dompdf/autoload.inc.php';
// Reference the Dompdf namespace
use Dompdf\Dompdf;
// Instantiate and use the dompdf class
$dompdf = new Dompdf();
// Load content from html file
$html = file_get_contents("../orderconfirmation.php");
$dompdf->loadHtml($html);
// (Optional) Setup the paper size and orientation
$dompdf->setPaper('A4', 'landscape');
// Render the HTML as PDF
$dompdf->render();
// Output the generated PDF (1 = download and 0 = preview)
$dompdf->stream("codexworld", array("Attachment" => 0));
But this gives me a pdf file with no data from the database, so I tried converting the file to a HTML file as suggested by many different places.
I did the following:
<?php
ob_start();
include("orderconfirmation.php");
$php_to_html = ob_get_clean();
$html_encoded = htmlentities($php_to_html);
echo $html_encoded;
?>
But this gives me an empty file. Any suggestions?
BTW, this is the code for my orderconfirmation.php file :
<?php
session_start();
include 'includes/restrictions.inc.php';
logged_in();
$title = 'Order confirmation';
include_once 'includes/header.php';
include_once 'includes/dbh.inc.php';
?>
<div id="" class="section orderconsec content">
<div class="container">
<div class="pb-4">
<h3>Thank you for your order</h3>
</div>
<div class="border-new border border-dark rounded p-3">
<div class="pt-2 pr-4 pl-4">
<b><h3>Order number</h3></b>
<h3><?php
$order_id = $_SESSION["order_id"];
$ordernosql = "SELECT * FROM invoice WHERE order_id = ?";
$stmt = mysqli_stmt_init($conn);
if (!mysqli_stmt_prepare($stmt, $ordernosql)) {
echo "SQL statement failed";
}
else
{
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "s", $order_id);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);
if($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo $row['order_id'];
?></h3>
<form method="post" action="includes/printpdf.inc.php">
<button type="submit" name="print-vouchers" class="btn btn-danger mt-3">Print</button>
</form>
</div>
<hr>
<div>
<p>We are currently processing your order and we will email you with confirmation shortly.</p>
<p>For your convenience you may want to save your order confirmation.</p>
</div>
<div class="pt-5 pr-4 pl-4">
<b><h3>Delivery Details</h3></b>
</div>
<hr>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p><b>Delivery for</b></p>
<p>
<?php
echo $row['uidUsers'];
?>
</p>
</div>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p><b>Address</b></p>
<p>
<?php
echo $row['user_address'];
?>
</p>
</div>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p><b>Delivery method</b></p>
<p>
<?php
echo $row['delivery_method'];
?>
</p>
</div>
<div class="pt-5 pr-4 pl-4">
<b><h3>Order summary</h3></b>
</div>
<hr>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p>
<?php
$output = str_replace(',', '<br />', $row['order_summary']);
echo $output;
?>
</p>
</div>
<div class="pt-5 pr-4 pl-4">
<h3>Payment information</h3>
</div>
<hr>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p><b>Payment type</b></p>
<p>
<?php
echo $row['payment_type'];
?>
</p>
</div>
<div style="padding: 10px;">
<p><b>Billing address</b></p>
<p>
<?php
echo $row['billing_address'];
}
}
?>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php
include_once 'includes/footer.php';
?>

Answer 1

You're loading the content of a PHP file into a variable via file_get_contents then passing that variable to Dompdf:
$html = file_get_contents("../orderconfirmation.php");
$dompdf->loadHtml($html);
This won't work. Dompdf does not parse PHP prior to rendering, that's something you need to do yourself. Try:
ob_start();
require("../orderconfirmation.php");
$html = ob_get_clean();
ob_end_clearn();
$dompdf->loadHtml($html);