PDF in a Flask

By Vasudev Ram





PDF in a Flask (pdf_flask.py) is a simple Flask web app that allows you to create a PDF file from text, over the web, by entering your text into a form and submitting it. It is written in Python, and uses my xtopdf toolkit for PDF creation, which in turn uses Reportlab.

PDF in a Flask is similar to my earlier post, PDF in a Bottle, but this app uses the Flask web framework instead of the Bottle web framework.

Here is the Python code for PDF in a Flask:

# PDF in a Flask.
# pdf_flask.py

# Description: Program to generate PDF from text, over the web,
# using xtopdf, ReportLab and the Flask web framework.
# It can be used to create short, simple PDF e-books.
# Author: Vasudev Ram - http://dancingbison.com
# Copyright 2013 Vasudev Ram 
# Tested with Python 2.7.

# Version: 0.1

import traceback
from textwrap import TextWrapper
from PDFWriter import PDFWriter
from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/pdf_book", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def pdf_book():
    if request.method == 'GET':
        # Display the PDF book creation form.
        return '''
            <form action="/pdf_book" method="post">
                PDF file name: <input type="text" name="pdf_file_name" />

                Header: <input type="text" name="header" />
                Footer: <input type="text" name="footer" />

                Content:
                <textarea name="content" rows="15" cols="50"></textarea>

                <input type="submit" value="Submit" />

            </form>
            '''
    else:
        # Create the PDF book from the posted form content.
        try:
            # Get the needed fields from the form.
            pdf_file_name = request.form['pdf_file_name']
            header = request.form['header']
            footer = request.form['footer']
            content = request.form['content']

            # Create a PDFWriter instance and set some of its fields.
            pw = PDFWriter(pdf_file_name)
            pw.setFont("Courier", 12)
            pw.setHeader(header)
            pw.setFooter(footer)

            # Get the content field.
            # Split it into paragraphs delimited by newlines.
            # Convert each paragraph into a list of lines of
            # maximum width 70 characters.
            # Print each line to the PDF file.
            paragraphs = content.split('\n')
            wrapper = TextWrapper(width=70, drop_whitespace=False)
            for paragraph in paragraphs:
                lines = wrapper.wrap(paragraph)
                for line in lines:
                    pw.writeLine(line)

            pw.savePage()
            pw.close()
            return "OK. PDF book created in file " + pdf_file_name + ".\n"
        except Exception, e:
            traceback.print_stack()
            return "Error: PDF book not created.\n" + repr(e) + ".\n" 

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True) 
    
# EOF

You can run the app with:

python pdf_flask.py

Then go to localhost:5000/pdf_book in your browser.

Enter some text into the big text box labeled Content. Also enter appropriate values into the other text boxes, such as PDF file name, header and footer.

When you click Submit, the PDF ebook will be created.

Here is a screenshot of the Guide to installing and using xtopdf, itself generated as a PDF book, using xtopdf and Python in a Flask web app.

- Vasudev Ram - Dancing Bison Enterprises

Contact me

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PDF in a Bottle - creating PDF using xtopdf, ReportLab, Bottle and Python

By Vasudev Ram





pdf_bottle.py is a program I wrote that allows you to create a PDF file from text, over the web, by entering your text into a form and submitting it.

Here is the program:

# pdf_bottle.py

# Description: Program to generate PDF from text, over the web,
# using xtopdf, ReportLab and the Bottle web framework.
# It can be used to create short, simple PDF e-books.
# Author: Vasudev Ram - http://dancingbison.com
# Copyright 2013 Vasudev Ram 
# Tested with Python 2.7.

# Version: 0.1

# Dependencies:
# xtopdf - https://bitbucket.org/vasudevram/xtopdf
# bottle - http://bottlepy.org
# ReportLab - http://www.reportlab.com/ftp/reportlab-1.21.zip
# Python - http://python.org

from PDFWriter import PDFWriter

from bottle import route, request, run

@route('/edit_book')
def edit_book():
    return '''
    <form action="/save_book" method="post">
    PDF file name: <input type="text" name="pdf_file_name" />

    Header: <input type="text" name="header" />

    Footer: <input type="text" name="footer" />

    Content:
    <textarea name="content" rows="15"   cols="50"></textarea>

    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />

    </form>
'''

@route('/save_book', method='POST')
def save_book():
    try:
        pdf_file_name = request.forms.get('pdf_file_name')
        header = request.forms.get('header')
        footer = request.forms.get('footer')
        content = request.forms.get('content')

        pw = PDFWriter(pdf_file_name)
        pw.setFont("Courier", 12)
        pw.setHeader(header)
        pw.setFooter(footer)

        lines = content.split('\n')
        for line in lines:
            pw.writeLine(line)

        pw.savePage()
        pw.close()
        return "Done"
    except Exception:
        return "Not done"

def main():
    run(host='localhost', port=9999)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

To run it, you need to have Python, the open source version of ReportLab, my xtopdf toolkit and the Bottle Python web framework installed.

Here is a guide to installing and using xtopdf.

For help with installing the other products, consult their respective sites, linked above.

Then run the program with this command:

python pdf_bottle.py

Then, in a browser window, go to localhost:9999

Enter the details - PDF file name, header, footer and text content - in the form, then click Submit.

The PDF file will be generated in the same directory from where you ran the Python program.

This is the first version, and has been tested only a bit. It you find any issues, please mention them in the comments.

Various improvements are possible, including sending the generated PDF to the user's browser, or providing a link to download it (better), and I'll work on some of them over time.

P.S. Excerpt from the Bottle framework site:

[
Bottle is a fast, simple and lightweight WSGI micro web-framework for Python. It is distributed as a single file module and has no dependencies other than the Python Standard Library.

Routing: Requests to function-call mapping with support for clean and dynamic URLs.
Templates: Fast and pythonic built-in template engine and support for mako, jinja2 and cheetah templates.
Utilities: Convenient access to form data, file uploads, cookies, headers and other HTTP-related metadata.
Server: Built-in HTTP development server and support for paste, fapws3, bjoern, Google App Engine, cherrypy or any other WSGI capable HTTP server.
]

- Vasudev Ram - Dancing Bison Enterprises

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