Coldfusion 11: New feature added to convert html to pdf

I was just curious about the new features added in the coldfusion 11 and I found that this is one of the great enhancement done by the coldfusion to its pdf engine in this latest version.

CFHTMLPDF tag

Creates PDFs from HTML

How to use?

Before using the tag please note that to run/use this tag, PDF service manager from coldfusion administrator should be enabled. When we install coldfusion 11 by default it is enabled.

PDF service manager are configured in the ColdFusion administrator under the section - Data & Services > PDF Service

ColdFusion lets you register multiple PDF Service Managers. These PDF Service Managers will handle PDF conversion requests for CFHtmlToPdf Tag. 

If the service manager is not enabled then it will give following error –

Various attributes has been provide for the tag to support different features of PDF document.

The source for the html can be internal or external.

   1.  Internal HTML

Just put some html code inside the tag and run cfm page.

PDF file will be open inside the browser as we haven’t provide the destination path inside tag.

<cfhtmltopdf> 

                <b>Hello WOrld !!!</b>

                <i>This is the test page of CFHTMLTOPDF</i>

                <u>Created By : Dattatray Shinde</u>

</cfhtmltopdf>

Output in the PDF format will look like as below –

   2. External Source

      We can give the external site as source for the tag.

For example –

http://www.bbc.com/news/

Now following is the web page look inside the browser –

      If we use CFHTMLPDF to convert this html to pdf then output will be as follows –

Code to generate bbc.pdf -

<cfhtmltopdf destination="bbc.pdf"

                 source="http://www.bbc.com/news/"

                 orientation="portrait"

                 pagetype="A4"

                 margintop="1"

                 marginbottom="1"

                 marginleft="1"

                 marginright="1">

</cfhtmltopdf>

Please take a note of the following compatibility issue which I have not testd :P

Compatibility Issue –

The rendering pdf engine only runs on Windows.

You can still run this tag on a Linux or Mac, but it must connect to a remote rendering engine running on Windows. 

References –

http://cfdocs.org/cfhtmltopdf

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-coldfusion-11/enhancements-to-html-to-pdf-conversion/