README

PDF template management for Silverstripe CMS 6.1.

Overview

This module lets editors define reusable PDF page layouts in the SiteConfig. Each template specifies page dimensions (width × height in mm) and a set of pages with individual margin, background and font-colour settings.

PDFs are generated server-side via TCPDF — no external service required. Content blocks accept plain text or HTML (h1–h6, p, b, i, ul, table, …).

Features

Manage PDF templates in Settings → PDF Templates
Each template auto-creates a LEFT page (hole-punch margin left) and a RIGHT page on first save
Optional COVER page (added manually, always rendered first)
Per-page settings: margins (T/R/B/L in mm), background PDF asset, font colour (RGB)
SVG preview of each page with margin visualisation in the CMS
Drag-and-drop page ordering
PdfCreator service class for generating PDFs programmatically

Developer Documentation

Installation

composer require clesson-de/silverstripe-pdf-templates
php vendor/bin/sake dev/build flush=all

Generating a PDF

use Clesson\Silverstripe\PdfTemplates\Services\PdfCreator;

$creator = PdfCreator::create('MY_TEMPLATE_UKEY');
// Plain text or HTML is accepted
$creator->addContent('<h1>Invoice</h1><p>Content for page 1 (LEFT).</p>');
$creator->addContent('<p>Content for page 2 (RIGHT).</p>');
$creator->addContent('<ul><li>Item A</li><li>Item B</li></ul>');
$creator->save('/path/to/output.pdf');

You can also pass a PdfTemplate model instance directly:

$template = PdfTemplate::get()->find('Ukey', 'MY_TEMPLATE');
$creator  = PdfCreator::create($template);

Page ordering

Position	Page type
1 (optional)	COVER — rendered once, no content block consumed
2, 4, 6, …	LEFT — content blocks 0, 2, 4, …
3, 5, 7, …	RIGHT — content blocks 1, 3, 5, …

Template variables

Constant	Description
`PdfPageType::LEFT`	Inner page, hole-punch margin on the left
`PdfPageType::RIGHT`	Inner page, hole-punch margin on the right
`PdfPageType::COVER`	Optional cover / title page

Ukey generation

The Ukey field is auto-generated from the template Name on first save:

Converted to ASCII, uppercased, spaces → underscores
Example: My Invoice Template → MY_INVOICE_TEMPLATE
If the key already exists a numeric suffix is appended: MY_INVOICE_TEMPLATE_2

SVG Preview

The PdfSvgPreviewHelper::generate() method renders a proportional SVG of any page. The blue rectangle shows the content area; dashed red lines mark the margin boundaries with mm labels.

User Guide

Creating a template

Go to Settings → PDF Templates
Click Add PDF template
Enter a Name (the unique key is auto-generated)
Set Page width and Page height in mm (default: A4 = 210 × 297 mm)
Save — two pages (LEFT and RIGHT) are created automatically

Editing pages

Open the template and switch to the Pages tab
Click the edit button next to a page
Adjust margins, font colour or upload a background PDF
The SVG preview updates after saving

Adding a cover page

In the Pages tab click Add page
Set Page type to Cover page
Save — the cover is automatically placed as the first page when generating PDFs

Reordering pages

Drag and drop the rows in the Pages GridField to change the sort order.

clesson-de / silverstripe-pdf-templates

Package info

Security

Statistics