How to create FPDF tables?

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.