PDFs with Wicked PDF

This is example application that uses wicked pdf to:

• Attach a styled pdf to an email
• Allow users to down a pdf version of a web page

To use wicked pdf:

gem 'wicked_pdf'
gem 'wkhtmltopdf-binary'

Then create the initializer with

rails generate wicked_pdf

In my case, I had to update the config/initializers/wicked_pdf.rb and comment out the following:

#:exe_path => '/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf'

In order to add styling to the pdf, you will need to add a layout for the pdf file and specify the layout in the pdf render:

In this example, I added one under 'views/layouts/pdf.html.erb' and specified the layout in the render with:

:layout => 'pdf.html.erb'

Options:

In order to view the pdf html in the browser, add ?debug=true to the end of the url:

http://0.0.0.0:3000/invoices/1.pdf?debug=true

and add the following to the pdf render:

:show_as_html => params[:debug].present?

This sample application uses letter_opener to generate the sample emails.