How to create FPDF tables? - php

Question

I have a problem creating tables with fpdf.
Can anyone help me making this page (or at least tell me how to do it)?
invoice tables
Or can you show how to convert HTML tables to FPDF tables and put the code here?
I also have this (along with the connection to the database):
$person = mysql_fetch_array($result);
I would like this to function when added inside the tables with this = (example)
$pdf->Cell(0,260,''.$person["CA"],'C',0 ,1); --- .$person["CA"]
Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Well, FPDF works kinda like a typewriter, in that it has a roving X,Y point which it writes to, which you can manually move around or let it do it for you.
I don't know if the huge whitespace at the left is required. If so, you'd have to call $this->SetX($coordinate) before each write.
You should do something like this:
class InvoicePDF extends FPDF //Create a new class to contain the header/footer/etc. which extends FPDF
{
public function Header()
{
//Header stuff goes here, like the big Invoice
$this->SetY(10); //SetY 10 units down from the top, experiment with distance to get appropriate distance
$this->SetFont('Arial','',20); //Set Font to Arial/Helvetica 20 pt font
$this->SetTextColor(0,0,0); //Set Text Color to Black;
$this->Cell(0,9,"INVOICE",0,0,'R'); //Write the word INVOICE Right aligned in a box the width of the page, will put it at the far right of the page
}
public function Footer()
{
//any footer stuff goes here
}
public function FillHeadInfo($info) //$info would be an array of the stuff to fill the small table at the top
{
$this->SetY(0); //reset the Y to the original, since we moved it down to write INVOICE
$this->SetFont('Arial','',12);
$this->SetFillColor(224,224,224); //Set background of the cell to be that grey color
$this->Cell(20,12,"Order #",1,0,'C',true); //Write a cell 20 wide, 12 high, filled and bordered, with Order # centered inside, last argument 'true' tells it to fill the cell with the color specified
$this->Cell(20,12,"Coding",1,0,'C',true);
$this->Cell(20,12,"Sales Code",1,1,'C',true); //the 1 before the 'C' instead of 0 in previous lines tells it to move down by the height of the cell after writing this
$this->Cell(20,12,$info['ordernum'],1,0,'C');
$this->Cell(20,12,$info['coding'],1,0,'C');
$this->Cell(20,12,$info['salescode'],1,1,'C');
$this->Cell(40,12,"Name & Address",1,0,'C',true);
$this->Cell(20,12,"Date",1,1,'C',true);
$y = $this->GetY(); //Need the current Y value to reset it after the next line, as multicell automatically moves down after write
$x = $this->GetX(); // Might need the X too
$this->MultiCell(40,12,$info['customername'] . "\n" . $info['address'] . "\n" . $info['city'] . ', ' . $info['state'] . ' ' . $info['zip'],1,'L',false); //I assume the customer address info is broken up into multiple different pieces
$this->SetY($y); //Reset the write point
$this->SetX($x + 40); //Move X to $x + width of last cell
$this->Cell(20,36,date("format",strtotime($info['date'])),1,1,'C'); //Might be easier to use $this->Rect() to draw rectangles for address and date and then write the address and date into them without borders using SetX and SetY, if the borders don't line up or whatever
}
public function fillItems($items)
{
//You'd build the items list much the same way as above, using a foreach loop or whatever
//Could also easily combine this function and the one above
}
}
Then, when creating the pdf you'd do something like this:
require_once('fpdf.php');
require_once('class.invoicepdf.php');
//Get whatever info you need to fill the pdf
$pdf = new InvoicePDF('P','mm','Letter');
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->FillHeadInfo($info); //Could also pass $_POST and rely on the keys of the $_POST array
$pdf->FillItems($items);
$pdf->Output('filename.pdf','I');
By the way, I'd suggest rather than trying to write it from $_POST, you save the order to the DB, then pass the order ID along to the script to write the pdf via a link and $_GET, and have the script retrieve the info from the DB, this way you can select only the info you need.