Proper way to echo into an pre-defined pdf

Question

I am trying to make a document that will be viewed as a PDF online. An example URL would be, url.com/PDF.php?name=John Doe.

The PDF will contain a lot of predefined text, and I want to echo the part after name= into the PDF on multiple occasions.

I've read (and tried) FPDF, TCPDF but I cant figure out how to implement this.

<?php
    echo htmlentities($_GET["name"]); //John
?>

Does anybody know a straight-forward way to achieve this?

I have no PDF code as I havent gotten either FPDF or TCPDF to properly work/display what I am doing. Thought I would check if this is the proper way to go or if i should use pure php.

A 'for dummies' guide to make these php/pdf libraries work would actually be great. I download the library, upload it to my server, duplicate one of the files from the examples folder, change the routing to (tcpdf-relative) files, but no, it will not work. If i go to one of the files in examples/example_001.pdf it displays correctly. If I copy that file to root and change links to match the new location it doesnt work.

Example works great http://fragger.no/pdf/examples/example_003.php

This file which is placed in root does not display at all, only a white page. No errors.

<?php

// Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path).
require_once('examples/tcpdf_include.php');


// Extend the TCPDF class to create custom Header and Footer
class MYPDF extends TCPDF {

    //Page header
    public function Header() {
        // Logo
        $image_file = K_PATH_IMAGES.'logo_example.jpg';
        $this->Image($image_file, 10, 10, 15, '', 'JPG', '', 'T', false, 300, '', false, false, 0, false, false, false);
        // Set font
        $this->SetFont('helvetica', 'B', 20);
        // Title
        $this->Cell(0, 15, '<< TCPDF Example 003 >>', 0, false, 'C', 0, '', 0, false, 'M', 'M');
    }

    // Page footer
    public function Footer() {
        // Position at 15 mm from bottom
        $this->SetY(-15);
        // Set font
        $this->SetFont('helvetica', 'I', 8);
        // Page number
        $this->Cell(0, 10, 'Page '.$this->getAliasNumPage().'/'.$this->getAliasNbPages(), 0, false, 'C', 0, '', 0, false, 'T', 'M');
    }
}

// create new PDF document
$pdf = new MYPDF(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);

// set document information
$pdf->SetCreator(PDF_CREATOR);
$pdf->SetAuthor('Nicola Asuni');
$pdf->SetTitle('TCPDF Example 003');
$pdf->SetSubject('TCPDF Tutorial');
$pdf->SetKeywords('TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide');

// set default header data
$pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE, PDF_HEADER_STRING);

// set header and footer fonts
$pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
$pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));

// set default monospaced font
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

// set margins
$pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);

// set auto page breaks
$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);

// set image scale factor
$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);

// set some language-dependent strings (optional)
if (@file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php')) {
    require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php');
    $pdf->setLanguageArray($l);
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------

// set font
$pdf->SetFont('times', 'BI', 12);

// add a page
$pdf->AddPage();

// set some text to print
$txt = <<<EOD
TCPDF Example 003

Custom page header and footer are defined by extending the TCPDF class and overriding the Header() and Footer() methods.
EOD;

// print a block of text using Write()
$pdf->Write(0, $txt, '', 0, 'C', true, 0, false, false, 0);

// ---------------------------------------------------------

//Close and output PDF document
$pdf->Output('pdf.pdf', 'I');

//============================================================+
// END OF FILE
//============================================================+

I edited this: // Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path). require_once('examples/tcpdf_include.php');

To // Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path). require_once('tcpdf.php');

and it worked, so now all i need is to use GET information in the document.

This is where I'd love to display ?name=

// set font
$pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 12);

// add a page
$pdf->AddPage();

// set some text to print
$txt = <<<EOD
My text

**NAME VALUE**

Some more text
EOD;

Answer 1

First of all, in order to use $_GET you have to check if it exists :

<?php

if ( isset( $_GET[ "name" ] ) )
     $name = $_GET[ "name" ];    // ◄■■■■■■ NAME FROM URL.
else $name = "noname";  // ◄■■■■■■ "NONAME" OR "?" OR ANYTHING ELSE.

// Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path).
require_once('examples/tcpdf_include.php');
.
.
.

The name is stored in $name, so you can use that variable anywhere :

$txt = <<<EOD
My text

$name

Some more text
EOD;