PDF Generation with Wicked pdf in Rails

I am using ruby 1.9.2 and rails 3. I think Wicked pdf is better than other rails pdf generation plugins. To start with wicked follow the steps :

Step 1: Open the terminal and go to your rails application folder.

• $ cd /home/MyApp
  Install wkhtmltopdf first .Open gem file, and add the line
  gem ‘wkhtmltopdf’
  $ bundle install
  Wicked pdf is using the wkhtmltopdf to create a pdf document from a rails html template.
  With wicked pdf we can, 
  1. Define documents structure through a simple html document.
  2. Theme them through CSS

  Just Download the static complied version from wkhtmltopdf home page. Extract it and place it under /usr/local/bin.
  Note : If your system is 64-bit download the 64Bit version. Else you get error, Something like ‘Exec Error’,’Executable format error’, etc.

Step 2: Install wicked pdf plugin

• $ rails plugin install git://github.com/mileszs/wicked_pdf.git
  now a configuration file is needed, we can use plugins generator script for it . But in rails 3 it will not work. Just copy the wicked_pdf.rb to initializers.
  $ cp vendor/plugins/wicked_pdf/lib/wicked_pdf.rb config/initializers
  and add the following to the config/initializers/wicked_pdf.rb
  WICKED_PDF = {
  :exe_path => ‘/usr/local/bin’
  }

Step 3:Add pdf instructions to your controller.

• In my rails app I created an action index_pdf. Under the action put the following line.
  def index_pdf
  render :pdf => “my_pdf”,:layout => false,:template => ‘/users/index_pdf’,:footer => {:center =>
  “Center”, :left => “Left”, :right => “Right”}
  end
  The render :pdf call has a lot of options. you can use these.

Step 4: Create a view file in app/view/index_pdf.erb

• Put the link in your app, in your home page or somewhere.
  <%= link_to ‘Create PDF document’, index_pdf_path(@user, :format => :pdf) %>
  the index_pdf_path is the path I mentioned in the route.rb file,
  match “/download_pdf(.:format)” => “users#index_pdf”, :method => :get, :as=>:index_pdf
  When all are set click the link to download the pdf.

• Include image in Wicked pdf

  write a function in application helper to take your images in wicked pdf.
  def pdf_image_tag(image, options = {})
  options[:src] = File.expand_path(RAILS_ROOT) + ‘/public/images’ + image
  tag(:img, options)
  end
  Add your image in public/images.
  Write the following code in view  <%= pdf_image_tag(‘photo.png’, :style=>”margin:0px;padding:0px”,

  :width=>”160″, :height=>”160″)%>

Its ‘wicked!!’ isn’t it?