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Extension request: mPDF
Closed, DeclinedPublic

Description

As described by MW.org, mPDF:

lets [users] export the printable version of a page as a PDF file. To do so it uses the mPDF PHP library (version 6.1), which does HTML-to-PDF conversion.

Advantages of this extension:

  • no need to install additional components
  • the generated PDF uses the same CSS styles as for rendering the printable version of the page
  • small size of the PDF file
  • supports UTF-8

Nominated by this contributor (and endorsed de facto by @Robkelk) in this Community noticeboard discussion as a more liable alternative to PdfBook, which struggles big-time with UTF-8; generates empty output (at least where I was two months ago); and remains on the chopping block per UO.

  • PdfBook is mostly unmaintained, and not on Wikimedia Gerrit,[1] so I don't see any fix happening there. We should consider removal.[2]

As mentioned before, the likes of this extension would sure come in handy for my future books. Let's hope the situation actually gets rectified soon enough in a test run....

Also on my current roadmap: Semantic Result Formats (T9542).


[1] Hosted on GitLab; last updated in July 2021.
[2] This actually happened once before (in April 2019 -- R9:6156f8d2f39e); almost two years later, the extension was reinstated via T6996.

Event Timeline

Reception123 triaged this task as Normal priority.Jul 28 2022, 06:23
Unknown Object (User) added a comment.Jul 29 2022, 23:44

I have some doubts if this extension will work, and it is not very maintained. But we can see what to do.

Unknown Object (User) removed a project: Configuration.Jul 29 2022, 23:44

Sadly, the more I think deeply about it, the more I'm realising mPDF is more or less exactly the same as the native "Printable version" feature. Either we'll deal with test-running it soon, or I'm better off withdrawing this request and trading it in for DocBookExport (which Referata once experimented with, and furthermore boasts multi-page support unlike mPDF).

DocBookExport, however, requires the "Figures" extension--but that's in beta at this writing, and as @Robkelk expressed his concern at the Noticeboard, "who knows when a change to Figures might make DocBookExport unusable?"

Unknown Object (User) closed this task as Declined.Sep 12 2022, 02:27
Unknown Object (User) claimed this task.

Unfortunately I must also decline this extension due being unmaintained. Apologies for the inconvenience. We can see what can come up with for a viable alternative for PdfBook though.