Dynamic HTML to PDF [closed]

Question

I need to be able to convert dynamic HTML (html that is rendered on page load by javascript) to a PDF. I know there are plenty of HTML to PDF converters but none of the ones I have found thus far cope with dynamic HTML.

The given tool should be able to successfully convert the following page - http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/

Cheers Anthony

UPDATE:

I don't need the JavaScript functionality here... i.e. i don't need to be able to interact screen... I just want the finial rendering of the screen to be captured in the PDF - like taking a photo after the page is loaded. And in the example I provided the javascript is only rendering divs to the screen so its nothing that it shouldn't be able to handle as long as it "lets" the "page" render first.

Answer 1

There is no way it can be done. The interfaces available for scripts in PDF are extremely limited compared to the full DOM and BOM access you enjoy in a web browser. Such interaction as you can achieve in PDF is not readily translatable from how it works in a browser and would almost certainly need hand authoring.

Your example page has many effects that PDF, as an essentially static document layout format, simply cannot reproduce at all.

Edit:

I just want the finial rendering of the screen to be captured in the PDF

Ah, OK, that's a far easier and more common problem then.

In that case you'll have to use and automate a real web browser (like Firefox), or a toolkit that provides all the logic of a web browser (like WebKit), then either:

• export to PDF, either using built-in tools like ‘Print to file’ in Firefox (with background images/colours turned on) or one of the PDF export add-ons, or

• take a image snapsnot of the browser (and include the image in a PDF if you have to)

See these questions for some discussion of browser snapshotting.

Answer 2

The fact that it uses any JavaScript at all means a lot of converters won't work. The JavaScript may be simple, but you still need an interpreter to handle it.

I haven't used it for myself, but you might try wkhtmltopdf. It uses the webkit rendering engine, and I believe it includes full javascript support. You would need to be able to install the software and run the executable, but otherwise it should be fairly straightforward.