TCPDF - Calling Output method appears to do nothing - php

Question

I've created a simple wrapper class for a TCPDF example I got off the web.
My aim is to call the methods in the class in succession, then output a pdf file to a directory in my project.
The code worked fine when I had a version of it in one blob and calling it from a page. After putting it into a class it seems to hang/do nothing around the call to Output(). I cannot step into it when debugging in netbeans, and no error appears to be thrown.
In case it was a folder permissions issue I've run chmod on the output directory in question.
Here is the class:
<?php
define('IMAGE_DIR', '/home/user/NetBeansProjects/PDF_Quote/img/');
require_once('lib/tcpdf/tcpdf.php');
class PDF_Test extends TCPDF {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);
}
public function set_document_info($creator = '', $author = '', $title = '', $subject = '', $keywords = '')
{
$creator = PDF_CREATOR;
$author = 'Author';
$title = 'Title Example';
$subject = 'Subject Example';
$keywords = 'TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide';
// set document information
$this->SetCreator($creator);
$this->SetAuthor($author);
$this->SetTitle($title);
$this->SetSubject($subject);
$this->SetKeywords($keywords);
}
public function header($logo_img = '', $title_text = '', $addit_text = '')
{
$logo_img = IMAGE_DIR . 'headerimg.png';
$title_text = 'the title';
$addit_text = 'additional text';
$this->SetHeaderData($logo_img, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, $title_text.' 001', $addit_text, array(0,64,255), array(0,64,128));
$this->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
}
public function footer($logo_img = '', $text = '')
{
$this->setFooterData(array(0,64,0), array(0,64,128));
$this->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));
}
public function set_default_monospaced_font($font = '')
{
if (strlen($font) === 0) { $font = 'courier'; }
$this->SetDefaultMonospacedFont($font);
}
public function set_margins($margin_left = '', $margin_top = '', $margin_right = '', $margin_header = '', $margin_footer = '')
{
$margin_left = PDF_MARGIN_LEFT; $margin_top = PDF_MARGIN_TOP; $margin_right = PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT;
$margin_header = PDF_MARGIN_HEADER; $margin_foot = PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER;
$this->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$this->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$this->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);
}
public function set_auto_page_break($set = True, $margin = '')
{
$set = True;
$margin = PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM;
$this->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);
}
public function set_image_scale($img_scale_ratio = '')
{
$img_scale_ratio = PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO;
$this->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);
}
public function set_language_array()
{
if (#file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php')) {
require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php');
$this->setLanguageArray($l);
}
}
public function set_font_subsetting($set = True)
{
$set = True;
$this->setFontSubsetting($set);
}
public function set_font($family = '', $style = '', $size = '', $fontfile = '', $subset = '', $out = True)
{
$family = 'dejavusans'; $size = '14';
$this->SetFont($family, $style, $size, '', $out);
}
public function add_page()
{
$this->AddPage();
}
// Can be html or just plain text
public function add_text_blob($html = '')
{
$html = '<h1>This is some stuff</h1><p style="background-color: green;">This is some content adhjdjasjd</p>';
$this->writeHTMLCell(0, 0, '', '', $html, 0, 1, 0, true, '', true);
}
public function output($path, $file_name)
{
$path = dirname(__FILE__) . '/pdfcache/'; //'/home/user/NetBeansProjects/PDF_Quote/pdfcache/';
$file_name = 'file_' . date('Y_m_d_H_i_s') . '.pdf';
try
{
$fp = $path . 'example1.pdf'; //. $file_name; //'/home/user/NetBeansProjects/PDF_Quote/pdfcache/example_001.pdf';
$this->Output($fp, 'F');
}
catch (exception $ex)
{
return $ex;
}
return $path . $file_name;
}
}
?>
Here is the code that calls the class in another php file:
require_once('PDF_Test.php');
$pdf = new PDF_Test();
$pdf->set_document_info();
$pdf->header();
$pdf->footer();
$pdf->set_default_monospaced_font();
$pdf->set_margins();
$pdf->set_auto_page_break();
$pdf->set_image_scale();
$pdf->set_language_array();
$pdf->set_font_subsetting();
$pdf->set_font();
$pdf->add_page();
$pdf->add_text_blob();
$pdf->output();
I haven't managed to find any similar issues in my googling, but I'm new to PHP, so I'm not sure if I'm overlooking anything glaringly obvious either.

Answer 1

I would recommend using the Output method in a way that it returns the PDF as binary string, so you can do whatever you want with it. This would be $pdfdoc = $pdf->Output('', 'S').
This way, you can still put the file to a path of your choice, but also dump it directly to the client, or attach it to an e-mail … and you can do a better error handling, because you have control over what TCPDF produces.
By the way, when you override a method in PHP, and you want to call the parent method, then you must use parent::METHOD(). Because you're actually overriding the header, footer, and output methods of TCPDF with yours (even if yours are lowercased).