iPDFGen.RemoteServer 8.0.9

iPDFGen

iPDFGen is a free, open-source .NET library designed to simplify PDF generation by providing a unified API over multiple PDF generation providers. It allows seamless switching between providers (e.g., Puppeteer, Playwright) without changing your code, addressing common challenges like licensing changes, page limits, or provider discontinuation.

Why iPDFGen?

• Reliable and Flexible: Supports multiple providers with a consistent API, making it easy to switch if a provider's terms or pricing change.
• Open Source: Freely available under the MIT License, with no commercial restrictions.
• Performance-Oriented: Optimized for typical workloads, with benchmarked performance across providers.
• Developer-Friendly: Simple setup and integration with .NET 8 applications.

Quick Start

1. Install the core iPDFGen NuGet package:

   dotnet add package iPDFGen.Core
   

2. Install a provider package (fastest and the most accurate is Playwright at the moment):

   dotnet add package iPDFGen.Playwright
   

3. Configure iPDFGen in your Program.cs:

   builder.Services.AddPdfGen(options =>
   {
       options.UsePlaywright();
   });
   

4. Generate a PDF from HTML:

   
   OneOf<PdfGenSuccessResult, PdfGenErrorResult> generatorResult = await app.Service
       .GetRequiredService<IPdfGenerator>()
       .Generate("<h1>Hello World!</h1>")
   
        Stream resultStream = result.Match(
            success => success.Stream,
            err => throw new Exception("Ups") // You might handle it differently upon a need
        );
   
        await WriteToFile(resultStream);
   
   
   async Task WriteToFile(Stream pdfStream)
   {
       await using var fileStream = File.OpenWrite("my.pdf");
       await pdfStream.CopyToAsync(fileStream);
   }
   

Installation

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK or later

Steps

1. Install the core iPDFGen package:

   dotnet add package iPDFGen.Core
   

2. Choose a provider and install its package:

   # For Playwright
   dotnet add package iPDFGen.Playwright
   # For Puppeteer
   dotnet add package iPDFGen.Puppeteer
   # For Remote Server, before using this provider please refer to Remote server setup section
   dotnet add package iPDFGen.RemoteServer
   

3. Register iPDFGen in your ServiceCollection:

   builder.Services.AddPdfGen(options =>
   {
       options
           .UsePlaywright() 
           // .UsePuppeteer() // For Puppeteer
           // .UseRemoteServer(new RemoteServerSettings
           // {
           //    BaseUrl = "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
           //    CompressionType = CompressionType.None,
           //    SharedSecret = "Your shared secret"
           // }) // For remote server
           .SetMaxDegreeOfParallelism(16)
           .SetDefaultTimeout(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
   });
   

   During a first PDF File generation iPDFGen will automagically download needed assemblies.
4. Inject and use IPdfGenerator in your services (see Quick Start for an example).

Supported Providers

Benchmarks

Benchmarks were conducted using a 2-page fake CV (resume.A4.xs.html) on a Linux Fedora 42 system with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and .NET 8.0.16. The table below compares performance for generating one (Single) or eighty (Eighty) PDFs, and single PDFs from URLs (SingleByUrl).

Key Observations:

• Playwright outperforms Puppeteer in all scenarios, especially for bulk generation.
• Memory usage is significantly lower with Playwright for bulk tasks.
• The RemoteServer provider offers a good balance of performance and memory usage with just a minor overhead in a comparison to Playwright provider.
• Puppeteer's SingleByUrl method shows significantly higher latency compared to other methods.

Remote server setup

Server is dockerized and pushed into Dockerhub here Feel free to pull it and setup into any environment that supports Docker images. Supports next Environment variables:

Under the hood PdfGen.Server is running in HTTP mode, so it's your responsibility to delegate domain setup HTTPs inside your ingress/load-balancer.

Troubleshooting

• Browser not found: Ensure Chromium (or another supported browser) is installed for Puppeteer/Playwright. Run playwright install for Playwright.
• Timeout errors: Increase the timeout using SetDefaultTimeout or check provider-specific issues.
• Remote server errors: Verify the server URL and shared secret for UseRemoteServer.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to iPDFGen! To get started:

1. Fork the repository on GitHub.
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b yourgithubusername/your-feature).
3. Submit a pull request with clear descriptions and tests.

License

iPDFGen is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute it as needed.

Contact

For questions or feedback, open an issue on GitHub or join our community discussions.