[SalesForce] Render a Visualforce page as PDF issues

I'm trying to render a HTML table in a Visualvorce page as PDF and I'm having the following issues:

I used the CSS below to display the page in landscape but it doesn't work.

@page {
size:landscape;
}

When rendering the VF page as PDF, the table is displayed without the colors I added using CSS.
How can I create a button that shows the VF page ready to be printed out?

Thank you very much!

Best Answer

The PDF renderer's support of CSS Is limited and some trial and error is nearly always required to get the results you want.

I'm not sure why your colours don't work, I've had no issues with that in the past so you might need to post the CSS and markup to show how you're doing it. The code you're using for landscape is correct, so I'm lead to think that you might have a syntax error somewhere that's breaking everything below a certain point.

Finally, you could open the PDF In an iFrame or similar, but since different operating systems and browser combinations handle things very differently I'd be inclined to just open the page in a new tab and let the user handle it how they'd like to. For instance on my Mac, Firefox asks me to save PDFs or open them in Preview (a local app) whereas Chrome displays PDFs in the browser window.

Update

The following CSS was being used:

table tr:nth-child(4n+2) { background: #ccc; }

Which while valid, is not supported by the PDF renderer. The solution is to apply the selection logic via Visualforce/Apex, using the styleClass parameter to specify a CSS class for the desired rows.

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In the Code Coverage podcast with Josh Birk there was mention of an improved PDF rendering engine pilot at the 19 minute 30 second mark.

I couldn't find mention of it on Google or in the IdeaExchange Pilot/Beta list.

It sounds like you need to raise a ticket or contact Josh directly to get in the pilot.

Will it solve you word-wrap issue? I don't know. But getting on the pilot would be a good way to get it supported in the future.

Update Summer '17 - Use Advanced PDF to Render Visualforce Pages as PDF Files (Pilot)

[SalesForce] How to render Multiple PDFs from a single Visualforce page

Firstly, all the columns are not fitting in a single PDF.

Use fewer columns, a smaller font, or some other design, such as a multi-line row. You can't go as wide as you'd like, that's a limitation of Flying Saucer, the underlying rendering engine.

Secondly, how do I turn the PDF into a landscape mode, like a full width of the browser.

Use the following CSS:

@page { size: A4 landscape; }

Thirdly, is there a way through which I could render in multiple PDFs for the single VF page (the 13 columns coming in probably 2 PDFs).

You can render as many PDFs as you'd like, assuming you don't run into other limits, such as CPU time. If each row is the same height, you could render the table in two parts, say 7 columns and 6 columns. You can use the CSS page-break-after: always to effectively re-align the tables without much effort. It would look like:

<div style="page-break-after: always">
    <!-- render first 7 columns -->
</div>
<div>
    <!-- render last 6 columns -->
</div>

Best Answer

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