This project was developed for converting any html page, or html file to PDF.

I have developed a project using node.js with mongo, but once I found that I cannot generate PDF files on freeBSD server. I could not install puppitter and / or fantom.js because it's not supported by unix OS and downloaded OS X files instead. After Googling for a week i made this patch or I don't know how to call it, but I liked python and python flask. For now it works fine and I happy. Down where I will provide instruction for Python 2.7 (It was tested on 2.7 and works fine), also how to make it work on freeBSD (if you like this OS).

It's very very simple, you need python installed on your OS you need to set path to python executable. You need also pip installed to install additional packages.

You know, python project need python and pip installed and working, also virtualenv and GCC, there is lot of documentation for LINUX and Windows but not for FreeBSD and it's problem, but if you know all benefits of this OS you know that performance and security is very very important, DO NOT FORGET, USER AND CUSTOMER ARE VIP NOT A root...

Well preparing....

For package searching use following command:

pkg seach python

You will get list of packages like:

and onw of them:

python27-2.7.16_1 Interpreted object-oriented programming language

Well let's do it and command:

pkg install python27

now you need package pip it's ofr install python packages like flask mongo etc.

pkg seach pip

And here is:

py27-pip-19.1.1 Tool for installing and managing Python packages

Well done now install it:

pkg install py27-pip

See logic on package installation? ;)

Now if you type python or pip you will get output I didn't and was very sad and unhappy...

But everything is fixable besides death, we have just alias to like env variable in windows.

which python

And if you get that command not found try to find your python installation in:

/usr/local/bin/python2.7

Now make symlink:

ln -s /usr/local/bin/python2.7 /usr/local/bin/python

You need more for FreeBSD you need alias this paths:

# cat .tcshrc

alias python python2.7

alias pip /usr/local/bin/pip-2.7

And everything this you can do using

echo 'alias python python2.7' >> ~/.tcshrc

Alias will not automatically work in your current session until you relog to shell or "reload" changes in .tcshrc:

source ~/.tcshrc

By editing dotfile, alias will become permanent. To create just a temporary alias for current session, you may set alias directly in the shell:

alias python python2.7

Temporary alias will disappear once you log off but can be "unaliased" in current session:

unalias python

Or just edit this file and do source ~/.tcshrc

So check if following command works:

python

pip

If you get output it's ok and we can move.

You need also few packages to convert PDF on freeBSD:

It's wkhtmltopdf and you need x11 Webfonts (maybe).

Well use pkg search wkhtmltopdf

Output is only one:

wkhtmltopdf-0.12.5_3 Convert HTML (or live webpages) to PDF or image

Now install be brave baby :

pkg install wkhtmltopdf

Do not forget:

webfonts-0.30_14 TrueType core fonts for the Web

And:

pkg install webfonts

Well done! Now your application is ready for work, do not forget to install all packages via pip

But it's another chapter, it's python package.

pip install pdfkit

Do not forget install virtual environment for python :

pkg install py27-virtualenv