Dynamic PDF Generation & Emailing in PHP

HTML Form:

Create an HTML form where users can enter the necessary information. Make sure to include the appropriate input fields for capturing the required data, such as recipient email, subject, and content.

<form action="generate_pdf.php" method="post">
  <input type="text" name="recipient_email" placeholder="Recipient Email" required>
  <input type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject" required>
  <textarea name="content" placeholder="Content" required></textarea>
  <input type="submit" value="Generate PDF and Send">
</form>

PHP Script (generate_pdf.php):

Create a PHP script that will handle the form submission, generate the PDF document, and send it as an attachment via email. This process requires the following steps:

1. Retrieve the form data using the $_POST superglobal.
2. Generate the PDF using a library like TCPDF or Dompdf.
3. Save the generated PDF to a temporary file on the server.
4. Use PHP's mail() function or a third-party library like PHPMailer to send the email with the PDF attachment.
5. Delete the temporary PDF file.

AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial', '', 12);
$pdf->Write(0, $content);
$pdfData = $pdf->Output('', 'S'); // Get the PDF as a string

// Send email with PDF attachment
$filename = 'generated_pdf.pdf'; // Name of the PDF attachment
$attachment = chunk_split(base64_encode($pdfData));

// Set the email headers
$headers = "From: sender@example.com" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: sender@example.com" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"boundary\"\r\n\r\n";

// Define the message body
$message = "--boundary\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n\r\n";
$message .= "Dear recipient, please find the attached PDF document.\r\n\r\n";
$message .= "--boundary\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Type: application/pdf; name=\"" . $filename . "\"\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"" . $filename . "\"\r\n";
$message .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\r\n\r\n";
$message .= $attachment . "\r\n\r\n";
$message .= "--boundary--";

// Send the email
$mailSent = mail($recipientEmail, $subject, $message, $headers);

// Delete the temporary PDF file
unlink($filename);

// Display success or failure message
if ($mailSent) {
    echo "PDF generated and email sent successfully!";
} else {
    echo "Failed to generate PDF and send email.";
}
?>

You need to download and include the TCPDF library in your project.

Sorry for my previous response. The actual code is here:

<?php
// Step 1: Set up your PHP environment
// Make sure you have a web server installed, such as Apache, and a PDF generation library like TCPDF or mPDF.

// Step 2: Create an HTML form
// Design your HTML form with the necessary fields for collecting the required data.
// Use the <form> tag to define the form's action attribute, pointing to the PHP script that will handle the form submission.
?>

<form action="generate_pdf.php" method="post">
  <label for="name">Name:</label>
  <input type="text" id="name" name="name" required>

  <label for="email">Email:</label>
  <input type="email" id="email" name="email" required>

  <input type="submit" value="Generate PDF and Email">
</form>

<?php
// Step 3: Handle the form submission in PHP
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
  // Retrieve the form data using the $_POST superglobal
  $name = $_POST['name'];
  $email = $_POST['email'];

  // Validate and sanitize the form data (omitted for brevity)

  // Step 4: Generate the PDF document
  require_once('tcpdf/tcpdf.php'); // Include the TCPDF library

  // Create a new PDF document
  $pdf = new TCPDF();
  $pdf->SetMargins(10, 10, 10);
  $pdf->AddPage();

  // Add content to the PDF using the form data
  $pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 12);
  $pdf->Cell(0, 10, 'Hello ' . $name . ',', 0, 1);
  $pdf->Cell(0, 10, 'Thank you for submitting the form.', 0, 1);

  // Step 5: Save the PDF document
  $pdfPath = 'path/to/save/pdf/' . uniqid() . '.pdf';
  $pdf->Output($pdfPath, 'F');

  // Step 6: Send the PDF document via email
  require_once('phpmailer/PHPMailer.php'); // Include the PHPMailer library

  $mail = new PHPMailer();
  $mail->setFrom('sender@example.com', 'Sender Name');
  $mail->addAddress($email, $name);
  $mail->Subject = 'PDF Document';
  $mail->Body = 'Please find attached the PDF document.';
  $mail->addAttachment($pdfPath, 'document.pdf');

  if ($mail->send()) {
    echo '<p>Email sent successfully!</p>';
  } else {
    echo '<p>Email sending failed.</p>';
  }

  // Step 7: Handle success and error cases
  // Implement appropriate error handling to catch any potential issues during PDF generation or email sending.
  // Provide feedback to the user regarding the success or failure of the process.
}
?>

To download TCPDF for PHP, you can follow these steps:

1. Visit the official TCPDF website: https://tcpdf.org/
2. Navigate to the "Download" section of the website.
3. You will find the latest stable release of TCPDF available for download. Click on the "Download TCPDF" button to start the download.
4. Once the download is complete, extract the downloaded ZIP file to a location on your computer.
5. After extraction, you will have a folder named "tcpdf" containing the TCPDF library files.

Now, you can include the TCPDF library in your PHP project by following these steps:

1. Move the "tcpdf" folder to a suitable location within your PHP project directory.
2. In your PHP file where you want to use TCPDF, include the TCPDF library by adding the following line at the top of your file:

   require_once('/path/to/tcpdf/tcpdf.php');
   

Make sure to replace "/path/to/tcpdf" with the actual path where you placed the TCPDF folder.