Using PHP to convert CSV to PDF

Use the sample PHP code below to easily and quickly convert CSV files to the PDF format. Taking structured data for display in a professional document format, get started converting CSV files in minutes and integrate directly into your PHP application to save time and effort. We provide a free Test account to try the service out, comprehensive documentation and support from developers.

CSV to PDF
CSV
PDF

PHP Code Sample

1. Install the Zamzar SDK

composer require zamzar/zamzar-php

2. Convert a file

<?php

// Signup for a Zamzar API Account or retrieve your existing API Key from https://developers.zamzar.com
$zamzar = new \Zamzar\ZamzarClient('YOUR_API_KEY_GOES_HERE');

// Converts /tmp/example.csv to /tmp/example.pdf
$zamzar
    ->jobs->create([
        'source_file' => '/tmp/example.csv',
        'target_format' => 'pdf'
    ])
    ->waitForCompletion();
    ->downloadTargetFiles('/tmp/');
    ->deleteAllFiles();

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The service just works. We've tried other file conversion services in the past, and the results were very disappointing.

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All traffic to and from Zamzar servers is secured by TLS/SSL. No third-party is able to read or tamper with data exchanged in connections to our servers.

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We encrypt files stored on disk with a unique key and multi-factor encryption so that data is unreadable if hardware is physically compromised.

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Using CSV with PHP

Using CSV with PHP

You have a number of different options with regards manipulating, reading and writing CSV files. You could use fgetcsv if you wanted to parse a CSV file through PHP. This function parses the CSV file into separate arrays based on the line endings, you can then manipulate the array to suit what you need to do with it. It should be noted that it does not work too well with quote characters and this will not be fixed.

Another option open to you is to use this CSV PHP library. It has the ability to read in CSV files, append entries to CSV files, more advanced manipulation of CSV files and some limited conversion capabilities. It is maintained under Github here and licensed under The MIT Licence.

A third alternative is using the Zamzar API. The API will allow you to manipulate your CSV file easily. There's no need to worry about hosting, and with S3 Integration you can automatically import and export to S3 with just two lines of code. There's a dedicated support team in place who can provide assistance at any stage of the process plus there's an extensive documentation library that should cover any issues/FAQ's.

Resources:
  • CSV PHP Library a PHP library used to manipulate CSV Files
  • Sprout Read, write and manipulate spreadsheet files (including CSV)
Related StackOverflow Questions:

Using PDF with PHP

Using PDF with PHP

There are a multitude of different open source PDF manipulation libraries within PHP to choose from. FPDF is a library that allows you to generate PDF files with pure PHP with no need to use the PDFlib library. According to the license agreement referenced in the FAQ you can use FPDF with no restrictions in both a commercial and non-commercial environment.

Another open source PHP option is mPDF which generates PDF files from UTF-8 encoded HTML. It is based on FPDF and HTML2FPDF and was designed to be able to quickly create PDF files from a website template. It supports Right to Left languages as well as a host of other features that you can find listed here.

TCPDF is a great PHP PDF library for creating PDF files from as little as two lines of code. It doesn't require any external libraries for the basic creation of PDF files and is arguably the most extensive PDF PHP library that we have come across. You can see a full list of features here. It is actively maintained by Nicola Asuni in this Github repository.

If you don't want to use an open source offering you might want to consider using the Zamzar API. With a dedicated support team, code examples in many of the major languages including PHP, simple low cost conversion credits and support for direct import and export to S3, it may cover most of the use cases you require. Feel free to reach out to our support team with any questions or dip into the getting started guide in our docs.

Resources:
Related StackOverflow Questions:

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