BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service

Re:BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service by cygned on Friday June 29, 2018 @11:54AM (#17425204)

We have built something similar internally. Macroservice running a cluster of headless Chromes that turn an uploaded HTML file into a PDF. Used for reporting.

We now switch to a Microsoft Word rendering backend where we process Word files with template strings in them and then run Word in headless mode to save files as PDFs. While the HTML-to-PDF approach works, most of our users work with Word all day so we are solving the wrong problem.

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Re:BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service by wilsonfiifi on Friday June 29, 2018 @12:10PM (#17425321)

Can you elaborate a bit more on your Word based reporting? To date the only solution i've been satisfied with is Aspose Words. Unfortunately licensing is a bit steep so it would be good to know if any cheaper options are available.

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Re:BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service by cygned on Friday June 29, 2018 @12:49PM (#17425712)

We basically process the template with a node.js library. We then have a node.js server on a Windows machine that takes a file, saves it onto disk and runs a Visual Basic application on it which itself starts Microsoft Word headless to save the file as PDF.

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Re:BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service by benbristow on Friday June 29, 2018 @02:20PM (#17426455)

> runs a Visual Basic application on it

Clever, but that does sound a bit messy.

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Re:BreezyPDF Lite: HTML to PDF generation as a Service by cygned on Friday June 29, 2018 @03:09PM (#17426902)

Sounds messy. However, this VB app is literally just 15 LOC, pretty straightforward. And it is the only solution we have found so far that allows us to leverage Word.

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