jsPDF server side (node.js) usage using node-jspdf

Question

I am actually trying to include jspdf in server side and then use it for simple pdf generation(simply the text "Hello world!")(Go to the url- get the pdf localhost:8080). Now the first problem I face is

• How to include it / What to do to use jsPDF in node?
• While trying to install it using npm install node-jspdf then it gives following error-

---

> G:\test\myproj>npm install node-jspdf
 [email protected] install G:\test\myproj\node_modules\node-jspdf
 sh install.sh

'sh' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
npm ERR! Windows_NT 6.1.7601
npm ERR! argv "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs
\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install" "node-jspdf"
npm ERR! node v0.12.4
npm ERR! npm  v2.10.1
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

npm ERR! [email protected] install: `sh install.sh`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] install script 'sh install.sh'.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the node-jspdf package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     sh install.sh
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls node-jspdf
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     G:\test\myproj\npm-debug.log

Can anybody help me on how to include it in node? And give a 4-5 line demo.

Answer 1

In extension to the answer provided by Simon Bengtsson:

I managed to handle even latin-1 characters by sending the output of jsPdf to encoding:

global.window = {document: {createElementNS: () => {return {}} }};
global.navigator = {};
global.btoa = () => {};

var fs = require('fs');
var jsPDF = require('jspdf');
var encoding = require('encoding')
var doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("HelloäöüßÄÖÜ©µ®", 10, 10);
var data = doc.output()
var buffer = encoding.convert(data, "Latin_1") 

fs.writeFileSync('./document.pdf', buffer);

delete global.window;
delete global.navigator;
delete global.btoa;

Answer 2

Node-jspdf mainly uses library jsPDF as the core library to render PDF file

but node-jspdf can only be installed on *unix system therefore you can download and install jsPDF manually by following steps in this file

I think you only need to install jsPDF to work with PDF file.

Answer 3

UPDATE: Jspdf now support nodejs so should be able to import jspdf without having to add the browser globals as outlined in this answer.

You can actually use jspdf directly (npm install jspdf instead of npm install node-jspdf). Jspdf is currently (v1.3.2) not built with node support in mind, but you can mock the globals like below and get it to work that way. This is a basic example and all features of jspdf will not be available.

global.window = {document: {createElementNS: () => {return {}} }};
global.navigator = {};
global.html2pdf = {};
global.btoa = () => {};

var fs = require('fs');
var jsPDF = require('jspdf');

var doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("Hello", 10, 10);
var data = doc.output();

fs.writeFileSync('./document.pdf', data, 'binary');

delete global.window;
delete global.html2pdf;
delete global.navigator;
delete global.btoa;

Answer 4

Download your jspdf folder from parallax jspdf. After installing jspdf ( "npm install jspdf" ) you get the jspdf folder inside node-modules. Go inside it and replace the jspdf.min.js by the jspdf.amd.min.js present in the /dist folder inside the jspdf downloaded from parallax

Answer 5

I am able to install node-jspdf in Windows.

1. As suggested download jspdf-master.zip and extract it.

2. Now use the command:

   npm install <location on jspdf-master extract>
   

After that you can use npm list to see the installation success.