Headlesspdf

A module for generating pdfs using node and headless chrome. This module allows writing code that manipulates the dom using node and then outputs the result as a pdf, using a combination of browserify and headless chrome. The primary intended purpose is to use this in combination with d3 to make pretty static graphs. As a result, in the node file you pass in, all of the standard web variables like document and window will be defined, but so will standard node variables like __filename and process, and the node variables will contain relevant information. Additionally a shim fs module can be loaded that will read files relative to the cwd this was started from.

Usage

From the command line:

headlesspdf -i myfile.js -o output.pdf
headlesspdf -i myfile.js -o output.pdf -c style.css arg1 arg2

or via the api:

const headlesspdf = require('headlesspdf');
const fs = require('fs');

fs.writeFileSync('output.pdf', headlesspdf('myfile.js'), 'base64', err => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }
});

const style = fs.readFileSync('style.css', 'utf8');
fs.writeFileSync('output.pdf', headlesspdf('myfile.js', {styles: [style], argv: ['arg1', 'arg2']}), 'base64', err => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }
});

The command line and api calls produce identical results. Your javascript file has to be a flat file so the require lookup by browserify will work.

Installation

npm install -g headlesspdf

To Do

• Potentially update __filename and __dirname. Not sure if this is possible without breaking modules, and it's probably not that important to make non-relative.
• Add protection options, e.g. don't give access to files, reveal absolute path, environment, send files over ssl, etc.
• Add process.stdin by reading the whole thing and passing it as a string in setup.