Generate PDF file from Rails view

Question

I have seen a lot of questions floating around on SO detailing how to display a PDF in the browser using prawn, but I want to create a PDF file to use as an attachment in an email.

Currently I am sending HTML formatted invoices to our merchants using the Rails ActionMailer. We have been requested to instead generate a PDF of the invoice and send that as an attachment so they can keep the files for their internal records.

I want to be able to use the same erb template I was using for sending emails (this is the crucial part) but instead output a PDF. Is this possible using Prawn (or anything else)?

Wicked PDF will generate PDF files from web views (erb) rather than scripting in separately like Prawn does. Is that what you're looking for? — dlehman

tomasbasham tomasbasham · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-07T15:04:01

I decided to use wicked_pdf in the end as was suggested in the comment on my question. I was able to use it as such

mail subject: "Order #{order.id}" do |format|
  format.text
    format.html do
      attachments["receipt #{Time.now}.pdf"] = WickedPdf.new.pdf_from_string(
        render_to_string pdf: 'receipt', template: 'order_mailer/order_receipt.html.erb'
      )
      render 'order_receipt'
    end
  end
end

This still renders out emails in HTML and text forms but also attaches a PDF to the email which uses the same template as the mailer

Generate PDF file from Rails view

1 Answers