Guide: Export PDF

In the last lesson, we will allow users with the guide role to export activities into a PDF file. The PDF will show the activity name, start time, and a list of participants in a table.

Exporting to PDF

We will use the package barryvdh/laravel-dompdf for exporting PDF. It's a Laravel wrapper for the DOMPDF package.

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Next, we need a Route and a button below the activity.

routes/web.php:

// ...
 
Route::middleware('auth')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/activities', [MyActivityController::class, 'show'])->name('my-activity.show');
    Route::get('/guides/activities', [GuideActivityController::class, 'show'])->name('guide-activity.show');
    Route::get('/guides/activities/{activity}/pdf', [GuideActivityController::class, 'export'])->name('guide-activity.export'); 
    Route::delete('/activities/{activity}', [MyActivityController::class, 'destroy'])->name('my-activity.destroy');
 
   // ...
});

resources/views/activities/guide-activities.blade.php:

// ...
<div class="space-y-3">
    <a href="{{ route('activity.show', $activity) }}">
        <img src="{{ asset($activity->thumbnail) }}" alt="{{ $activity->name }}"> </a>
    <h2>
        <a href="{{ route('activity.show', $activity) }}" class="text-lg font-semibold">{{ $activity->name }}</a>
    </h2>
    <time>{{ $activity->start_time }}</time>
    <a href="{{ route('guide-activity.export', $activity) }}" class="inline-flex items-center px-4 py-2 bg-gray-800 border border-transparent rounded-md font-semibold text-xs text-white uppercase tracking-widest hover:bg-gray-700 focus:bg-gray-700 active:bg-gray-900 focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-indigo-500 focus:ring-offset-2 transition ease-in-out duration-150"> 
        Download PDF
    </a> 
</div>
// ...

Now we can use the package to download the PDF.

app/Http/Controllers/GuideActivityController.php:

use Barryvdh\DomPDF\Facade\Pdf;
 
class GuideActivityController extends Controller
{
    // ...
 
    public function export(Activity $activity)
    {
        abort_if(auth()->user()->role_id !== Role::GUIDE->value, Response::HTTP_FORBIDDEN);
 
        $data = $activity->load(['participants' => function($query) {
            $query->orderByPivot('created_at');
        }]);
 
        return Pdf::loadView('activities.pdf', ['data' => $data])->download("{$activity->name}.pdf");
    }
}

We are using Blade for outputting data.

resouces/views/activities/pdf.blade.php:

<h1>{{ $data->name }}</h1>
 
<h4>Start time {{ $data->start_time }}</h4>
 
<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th></th>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Email</th>
            <th>Registration Time</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        @foreach($data->participants as $participant)
            <tr>
                <td>{{ $loop->iteration }}</td>
                <td>{{ $participant->name }}</td>
                <td>{{ $participant->email }}</td>
                <td>{{ $participant->pivot->created_at }}</td>
            </tr>
        @endforeach
    </tbody>
</table>

Of course, you might need to add some styles to the PDF file for better readability.

Tests

There isn't much that we can test with the PDF. We will add one test to the GuideActivityTest to check if PDF isn't empty, the content type is application/pdf, and the filename is correct.

tests/Feature/GuideActivityTest.php:

class GuideActivityTest extends TestCase
{
    // ...
 
    public function test_pdf_export()
    {
        $guide = User::factory()->guide()->create();
        $activity = Activity::factory()->create(['guide_id' => $guide->id]);
 
        $response = $this->actingAs($guide)->get(route('guide-activity.export', $activity));
 
        $this->assertNotEmpty($response->getContent());
        $this->assertEquals('application/pdf', $response->headers->get('Content-Type'));
        $this->assertEquals('attachment; filename="' . $activity->name .'.pdf"', $response->headers->get('Content-Disposition'));
    }
}