PHPTutorial

HTML to PDF in Laravel

Generate PDFs from your Laravel app with one HTTP call.

01. Install

# composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle  (or use Laravel's built-in Http facade)
# Add to .env:
# PDFMYHTML_API_KEY=pmh_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

02. Basic call

// app/Http/Controllers/InvoiceController.php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;

public function pdf(Invoice $invoice)
{
    $html = View::make('invoices.template', compact('invoice'))->render();

    $response = Http::withHeaders([
        'X-API-Key' => env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY'),
    ])->post('https://api.pdfmyhtml.com/v1/html-to-pdf', [
        'html' => $html,
        'wait' => true,
    ]);

    $pdf = Http::get($response->json('download_url'))->body();

    return response($pdf, 200, [
        'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf',
        'Content-Disposition' => 'inline; filename="invoice-' . $invoice->id . '.pdf"',
    ]);
}

03. Error handling

// Robust version with error handling + logging
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;

public function pdf(Invoice $invoice)
{
    try {
        $response = Http::timeout(30)
            ->withHeaders(['X-API-Key' => env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY')])
            ->post('https://api.pdfmyhtml.com/v1/html-to-pdf', [
                'html' => View::make('invoices.template', compact('invoice'))->render(),
                'wait' => true,
            ]);

        if ($response->failed()) {
            Log::error('pdfmyhtml HTTP error', ['status' => $response->status(), 'body' => $response->body()]);
            return response('Could not generate PDF', 500);
        }

        $data = $response->json();
        if ($data['status'] !== 'COMPLETED') {
            return response('PDF still processing — try async polling', 503);
        }

        $pdf = Http::timeout(30)->get($data['download_url'])->body();
        return response($pdf, 200, ['Content-Type' => 'application/pdf']);
    } catch (\Illuminate\Http\Client\ConnectionException $e) {
        Log::error('pdfmyhtml timeout', ['exception' => $e]);
        return response('PDF service unavailable', 503);
    }
}

04. Async pattern (high volume)

// Async pattern: dispatch a queued job, poll later
// Avoids holding the request open for 25s.

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

class GenerateInvoicePdf implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Queueable;

    public function __construct(public Invoice $invoice) {}

    public function handle()
    {
        $response = Http::withHeaders(['X-API-Key' => env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY')])
            ->post('https://api.pdfmyhtml.com/v1/html-to-pdf', [
                'html' => $this->invoice->renderHtml(),
                'wait' => false,  // async
            ]);
        $jobId = $response->json('job_id');

        // Poll until COMPLETED (or schedule a follow-up job in 30s)
        for ($i = 0; $i < 60; $i++) {
            sleep(2);
            $status = Http::withHeaders(['X-API-Key' => env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY')])
                ->get("https://api.pdfmyhtml.com/v1/jobs/{$jobId}")->json();
            if ($status['status'] === 'COMPLETED') {
                $pdfBytes = Http::get($status['download_url'])->body();
                Storage::put("invoices/{$this->invoice->id}.pdf", $pdfBytes);
                return;
            }
        }
        throw new \Exception('PDF generation timed out');
    }
}

05. Real-world example

// Real-world: Stripe checkout.session.completed → invoice PDF → email
// In your StripeWebhookController:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use App\Mail\InvoiceMail;

public function handleCheckoutCompleted($session)
{
    $invoice = Invoice::create([
        'stripe_session_id' => $session->id,
        'amount_cents' => $session->amount_total,
        'customer_email' => $session->customer_details->email,
    ]);

    $html = View::make('invoices.template', compact('invoice'))->render();
    $response = Http::withHeaders(['X-API-Key' => env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY')])
        ->post('https://api.pdfmyhtml.com/v1/html-to-pdf', ['html' => $html, 'wait' => true]);

    $pdf = Http::get($response->json('download_url'))->body();
    Storage::put("invoices/{$invoice->id}.pdf", $pdf);

    Mail::to($invoice->customer_email)->send(new InvoiceMail($invoice, $pdf));
}

Common gotchas

01.Laravel's `Http` facade defaults to a 30-second timeout; you must set `Http::timeout(30)` explicitly when using `wait: true` to avoid surprise truncation.
02.Blade templates render with relative URLs by default. If your invoice template references CSS or images, use `asset()` or `URL::to()` to produce absolute URLs that Playwright can fetch.
03.When dispatching the PDF generation as a queued job, make sure your queue worker has internet egress to `api.pdfmyhtml.com` — some PaaS providers firewall outbound by default.
04.Don't store the API key in `config/services.php` and commit it — use `env('PDFMYHTML_API_KEY')` and keep secrets in `.env` (or a vault).

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