Note for customers using custom quote PDFs in versions before 2.6: ConfigBox 3 uses one a single template for both quote PDF download and quote email attachment. It is no longer necessary two individual templatesto override each.
You can override the output of quotation PDFs in the same way as other templates (see Custom Templates for reference). However, PDF generation imposes different limitations on how you choose to write your HTML and CSS. Here we put our best tips for smooth development.
The PDF generator library is domPDF.
The template for quotations works just as regular CB views and the HTML output of the template gets passed to domPDF’s rendering functions.
The produced template HTML and CSS needs to be well nested and adhere strictly to HTML 1.1 strict and CSS level 3 - or higherto HTML5 standards.
A subset of CSS directives works with domPDF. Officially CSS 2.1 works and it is best practice to code as simple as possible.
domPDF documentation states that CSS floats are supported, but it does not reliably. Best to use tables for layout.
Nested tables (<table> within a <table>) best be avoided - page splitting works properly only when you avoid thislead to rendering issues in case the content spans over multiple pages.
For images, set width and height dimensions. Layout flows then work reliably.
In case your customizations have led to a sizeable custom CSS file (say more than 2kB), consider creating a separate stylesheet for the quotation PDF for performance reasons (set the URL to that stylesheet in the <head> block of the template).
Since ConfigBox 2.6.26 we moved 26, the PDF’s header/footer PHP to coding is in a separate template file (called header_footer) for easier customization. If you override something and don’t need changes to the header/footer, simply don’t copy the header_footer.php template to your customization folder. The system will load the original template for the header/footer then.
Mind that if you want to adjust page margins, set margins on the <body> tag
Location of the original template:
Joomla: /components/com_configbox/{AppDir}/views/quotation/tmpl/default.phpWordpress: /wp-content/plugins/configbox/app/views/quotation/tmpl/default.php
Location of the custom template:
Joomla: /components/com_configbox/data/customization{CustomizationDir}/templates/quotation/default.phpWordpress: /wp-content/plugins/configbox/app/data/customization/templates/quotation/default.php
The template uses output of other views
The template uses the output of other views (namely ‘record’ and ‘positions’). If you need to alter this part of override the templates of these views for the quotation PDF, you can make overrides of these templates, but be mindful about the fact mind that these views are used elsewhere (admin order page, user order page, checkout page and possibly more in the future). Alternatively, invent a system that gives you different HTML for the PDF and website.