Custom Page Insets and Page Size when using HTMLToPDF
Hi,
Greetings. Hope you are well! We recently upgraded from Pega 7.3.1 to Pega 8.7.3, we were using pd4ml library to generate pdfs using the HTML Stream in 7.3.1, however in 8.7.3, the library seems to be broken (has lots of issues with page insets, page size, fonts etc).
If i were to use HTMLToPDF ootb funtionality, is there a way to set Page Insets, Page Size and Page Orientation and also the footer etc.
I tried to look for documentation but could not find anything explaining these are possible, have seen old posts mentioning that these configurable settings except Footer are all hardcoded with pdfUtils.
Any suggestions, please do let me know!
Regards,
Bharat
***Edited by Moderator Marije to add FDBK BUG tags***
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
@KOMARINA could you take a look at our excellent Troubleshooting HTML-to-PDF Conversion issues and Updates to PD4ML support articles?
Accenture
GB
@MarijeSchillern Hi, Greetings. I have looked at the articles however there is no mention of how to add page insets.
Regards,
Bharat
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
You have logged this issue against Pega 8.7.3. I believe there were improvements made in Pega Patch version 8.7.4 where we added support for the A5 page size from the third party lib PD4ml jar which was initially not handled within the engine code.
BUG-720119 was fixed in 8.7.4 where we now use PD4ML jar 4.0.9 fx5.
Please see the Pega Platform 8.7.4 Patch Resolved Issues document and search for 'pd4ml':
Therefore in the new version additional page sizes are available for PDF generation - Page size(pyPDFPageSize) can be passed as a param for HTMLToPDF activity . Support has been added for using page sizes in PDF generation which are supported by the v4 pd4ml jar including A0 - A10.
Also note that PDF margins have been made available as parameters. Note that PD4ML v3 used setPageInsets(new Insets(top, left, bottom, right)) , but the new v4 jar uses setPageMargins(new PageMargins(left, top, right, bottom)) .
PD4ML margins are now available to be set as parameters: Param.pyMarginLeft, default value 20 Param.pyMarginTop, default value 10 Param.pyMarginRight, default value 10 Param.pyMarginBottom, default value 10
When standard activities like HTMLToPDF / pyViewAsPDF / pyAttachAsPDF are used, add a Property-Set step before calling the activity to add the necessary margin parameters.
You have logged this issue against Pega 8.7.3. I believe there were improvements made in Pega Patch version 8.7.4 where we added support for the A5 page size from the third party lib PD4ml jar which was initially not handled within the engine code.
BUG-720119 was fixed in 8.7.4 where we now use PD4ML jar 4.0.9 fx5.
Please see the Pega Platform 8.7.4 Patch Resolved Issues document and search for 'pd4ml':
Therefore in the new version additional page sizes are available for PDF generation - Page size(pyPDFPageSize) can be passed as a param for HTMLToPDF activity . Support has been added for using page sizes in PDF generation which are supported by the v4 pd4ml jar including A0 - A10.
Also note that PDF margins have been made available as parameters. Note that PD4ML v3 used setPageInsets(new Insets(top, left, bottom, right)) , but the new v4 jar uses setPageMargins(new PageMargins(left, top, right, bottom)) .
PD4ML margins are now available to be set as parameters: Param.pyMarginLeft, default value 20 Param.pyMarginTop, default value 10 Param.pyMarginRight, default value 10 Param.pyMarginBottom, default value 10
When standard activities like HTMLToPDF / pyViewAsPDF / pyAttachAsPDF are used, add a Property-Set step before calling the activity to add the necessary margin parameters.
When CreatePDF smart shape is used, set the parameters via the connector of the CreatePDF.
I have not found this to be documented in our documentation.
We encourage our users to provide any feedback on existing articles where you believe details to be missing.
Please could I ask that you open the existing document such as 'Generating complex PDFs from your UI' or 'Generating a PDF documentation' and use the 'Feedback' button (see below) to request the level of details you believe to be missing from the main Pega Platform documentation?
Accenture
GB
@MarijeSchillern Hi, Thank you for this information. 8.7.3 uses pd4ml v4.0.13, Is 8.7.4 now using a lower version of pd4ml compared to 8.7.3 which is 4.0.9fx5?
These Page Insets as Params, can they also be used in 8.7.3?
I will use the feedback button to request missing details from Pega documentation.
Regards,
Bharat
Updated: 16 Dec 2022 5:37 EST
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
@KOMARINA 8.7.4 uses PD4ML version 4.0.13fx1 as described in the Resolved Issues.
I believe the parameters option should work as it is library version specific and the functionality has been available since Pega 8.7.2 (BUG-707515).
Please try it out (make sure you refactor pdf generation) and if you run into any issues when using Pega 8.7.4 please log a support incident to have it investigated.