Laravel PDF Generation using response()->make()

In Laravel, we can generate a PDF file and return it as a response using the response()->make() method. This method creates a response with the given content and headers, which can be used to download or display the PDF file to the user.

Requirements

First, we need to install the barryvdh/laravel-dompdf package. This package is a wrapper around the Dompdf library and provides an easy way to generate PDF files in Laravel.

To install the package, run the following command in your terminal:

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Once the package is installed, we need to add the service provider and facade in config/app.php:

'providers' => [
    //...
    Barryvdh\DomPDF\ServiceProvider::class,
],

'aliases' => [
    //...
    'PDF' => Barryvdh\DomPDF\Facade::class,
],

Usage

After installing the package, we can generate a PDF file by creating a blade view and using the PDF::loadView() method to load the view and generate the PDF file.

Here is an example:

use PDF;

public function generatePDF()
{
    $data = [
        'title' => 'My PDF File',
        'content' => 'This is the content of my PDF file.'
    ];

    $pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.file', $data);

    return $pdf->download('myfile.pdf');
}

We first define a $data array with the data that we want to display in the PDF file. We then use the PDF::loadView() method to load the view, which will contain the HTML markup of our PDF file.

We pass the $data array as the second parameter to the loadView() method, so that we can use it in our view. In this case, we are using {{$title}} and {{$content}} to display the data in our PDF file.

Finally, we call the download() method on the $pdf object to download the PDF file to the user's computer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, generating PDF files in Laravel is made easier with the barryvdh/laravel-dompdf package. We can use the response()->make() method to return the generated PDF file as a response to the user.