Rails view: Export to pdf

This method exports html views in PDF using the exact same CSS and HTML you display on your site. This means that you don't need an extra effort in reformating everything to look nice on a PDF file.

This tutorial is mainly based on the method described by Jim Neath (site) with the necessary windows tweak.

1. Install

Download and install PrinceXML

Install the princely plugin (interface between Prince and rails)

 script/plugin install git://github.com/mbleigh/princely.git

2. Tweaking for Windows

The following trick is necessary to make it work under Windows.

Change the path of the application in the file \vendor\plugins\princely\lib\prince.rb with the following line :

@exe_path = "C:\\Program Files\\Prince\\Engine\\bin\\prince" .chomp

the old line was : @exe_path = `which prince`.chomp

Add

pdf.binmode #this is new

under the line where you see:

pdf = IO.popen(path, "w+")

That should be ok after this.

3. Usage

In your views:

Copy the view you want to print, modify it to display only what you want to print (using CSS and HTML like a normal view) and rename it (example : show.pdf.erb instead of show.html.erb)

In your controller:

edit the corresponding action to add a new render method for the PDF file

# GET /post/1
# GET /post/1.xml
def show
@post = Post.find(params[:id])

respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.xml  { render :xml => @post }
format.pdf do
render :pdf => "filename", :stylesheets => ["application", "prince"], :layout => "pdf"
end
end
end

That's it

When you call, /posts/show/5.pdf you get a pdf file of the record id you have called.
In my example, the record id was 5.

More information
Thanks to mikedc55 for the tweak on windows.

Rails view: Export to csv

A simple and efficient export of a view to a csv file can be achieved by following these steps:

1. Install

install the following gems:

gem install fastercsv
gem install crafterm-comma --source=http://gems.github.com

2. Usage

In your controller, add:

class PostsController < ApplicationController

# GET /posts
# GET /posts.xml
# GET /posts.csv
def index
@posts= Posts.find(:all)

respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.xml  { render :xml => @posts}
format.csv { render :csv => @posts}
end
end

In your model, add:

# ===============
# = CSV support =
# ===============
comma do  # implicitly named :default


field_to_display_1
field_to_display_2
field_to_display_3
field_to_display_4
field_to_display_5
field_to_display_6

end

In your view, add a link to the file:

the text is for example "Export to Excel" and the target of the link is /posts.csv

Rails will see the different extension and choose the appropriate render method from your controller.


3. That's it

When you click on the "Export to excel" link in the view you will get a CSV file. Depending on your browser settings, it will open in MS Excel or ask you where to save it.

from there, you can extrapolate and add params to the view.

More information

Ext JS 3.0 and rails

Ext JS 3.0, the javascript framework, is now reaching beta 2 with a REST support. This could play along quite well with rails.

Go check it out here