README

PD4ML for PHP: HTML and CSS to PDF, PDF/A, PDF/UA, DOCX, RTF and images, with the full public PD4ML API (Java package com.pd4ml) available to PHP applications.

PD4ML runs in a small Java bridge process that PHP talks to; every public Java class, method, constant and enum can be used from PHP, and the module adds PHP I/O (paths, strings, streams) on top. New converters use the v42 layout engine by default.

require 'vendor/autoload.php';            // Composer's autoloader

use Pd4ml\PD4ML;
use Pd4ml\Java;

$pd = new PD4ML();                                        // v42 layout engine
$pd->setPageSize(Java::PageSize()->A4);
$pd->setPageMargins(Java::PageMargins()->new(15, 15, 15, 15, Java::Units()->MM));
$pd->readHTML('invoice.html');                            // a path, URL, Bytes or stream
$pd->writePDF('invoice.pdf', Java::PdfSpec()->PDFA_3B);   // a path or stream; no target: returned

Documentation: docs/guide.md — prerequisites, installation, use cases with code, tips and troubleshooting; docs/api.md — every class and method. The PD4ML manual itself is at https://pd4ml.com/docs/.

Requirements

PHP 8.1+ with json, mbstring, simplexml (and openssl to download PD4ML)
Java 8 or later (JDK or JRE): JAVA_HOME, PD4ML_JAVA, or java on the PATH

Installation

The package is on Packagist, so Composer installs it:

composer require pd4ml/pd4ml-php
vendor/bin/pd4ml install                # the most recent PD4ML 4.* release (Windows: vendor\bin\pd4ml install)

composer update pd4ml/pd4ml-php updates the module; vendor/bin/pd4ml install again updates the PD4ML build it uses. Without Composer, clone https://github.com/zxfr/pd4ml-php, include its src/autoload.php and run its tool as php bin/pd4ml.

pd4ml install downloads PD4ML from https://pd4ml.com/maven2 with the Bouncy Castle jars it needs (from Maven Central), verifies them and stores them in the user's cache directory (PD4ML_HOME to choose another); the module uses that build by itself. Options: --snapshots, --version=X, --jakarta, --home=DIR, --force; vendor/bin/pd4ml list shows the versions.

Alternatively point the module at a build with PD4ML_CLASSPATH, PD4ML_CLASSPATH_FILE or Bridge::configure(['classpath' => ...]).

Web servers

Under PHP-FPM or mod_php run one bridge server instead of a Java start per request:

vendor/bin/pd4ml serve --port=8723

and set PD4ML_BRIDGE=tcp://127.0.0.1:8723 for the web server.

Command line

vendor/bin/pd4ml convert page.html page.pdf [--spec=pdf/a-2b] [--engine=v40]   # also .docx, .rtf, .png
vendor/bin/pd4ml version

Development


`php tests/run.php`	the tests (`PD4ML_NETWORK_TESTS=1`: also the download)
`php tests/docs.php`	runs the guide's code snippets
`php tools/build-bridge.php`	rebuilds `lib/pd4ml-bridge.jar` from `java/src` (needs a JDK)
`php tools/gen-stubs.php [classpath-file]`	regenerates `src/PD4MLApi.php` and `docs/api.md` from the PD4ML classes

The tests and generators use the PD4ML build from PD4ML_CLASSPATH/PD4ML_CLASSPATH_FILE, ./pd4ml.classpath (one classpath entry per line), or the installed one.

How it works

lib/pd4ml-bridge.jar (source in java/src, Java 8 bytecode) runs next to PD4ML and speaks a line-based JSON protocol: PHP creates Java objects, calls methods (overloads resolved by reflection) and reads fields by handle; bytes, streams, URLs and maps are converted at the boundary; Java interfaces can be implemented by PHP callables (Java::proxy()), their calls delivered to PHP while the conversion runs.

pd4ml / pd4ml-php

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