Creating a PDF catalog

How can I create a PDF catalog to send to customers when they request them?

Don't bother with the old contribution. It does not work with the latest version of Zencart. I have been trying to port the most recent version from OSC to Zencart but my requests for help with the PHP code have been ignored, even when I PM'd Dev team members directly.

You can see the thread here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63775

Quite simply, you will be wasting your time with the older version and nobody is interested in helping to solve the problems with the newr version. Save yourself the effort and simply don't waste your time like I wasted mine thinking people would help get this working - WRONG!

Not sure I understand. Wouldn't you just create the PDF document yourself, then make it a downloadable product? Why is a contribution needed?

Or is there a requirement for a continually changing catalogue perhaps? In that case, just update your locally produced PDF and upload it to the server as needed.

Rob

The great thing about this contribution was it generated the catalogue for you with one click and added a download link to your store. Having a sale? Price increase? New products? It was then simply a case of clicking a generate link in Admin and you had a new catalogue. :smile:

Details included the model number, descriptions, category, photo, price etc.

Finally all products in the catalogue are hyper linked so you could go straight to the relevant product on the store to purchase it.

Brent

I am wandering why zen cart should have some clear deficits in its cart. pdf creator, catalogue maker are minimum tools for a shopping cart today.
I feel that zen cart developpers don't work on time development issues and customers need!!!

reza:

I am wandering why zen cart should have some clear deficits in its cart. pdf creator, catalogue maker are minimum tools for a shopping cart today.
I feel that zen cart developpers don't work on time development issues and customers need!!!

Reza,

Keep in mind that these folks have graciously given of their time and effort to provide this application to you free of charge. This is an OpenSource project, and anyone can have a go at creating needed or wanted add-ons for it.

Has anyone tried to create a new version of this module for the latest zen cart? I would love to be able to have it create my catalog for me. I have requests for a catalog and I'm Eco friendly and don't want to have one in print. Having the link to each product is wonderful! :D:clap:

I'd like to see this but don't have the time to muck around in the code right now. I found it for osC (never going back except to mine for ideas!)
addons.oscommerce.com/info/908/v,22

This is a great module, but it doesn't work with new version of zen cart. I hope somebody can stand up and port it to new version.

I can't find this module, can anyone tellme where can I download?

thanks

Pretty much long gone, I think. Too bad. I could really use this. As I mentioned earlier in the year, there's a version at osC, but it would take some bit of work to port it over. Maybe you could hack up PDF Order Center to generate one. If you end up hiring someone to do it, let me know. Maybe we can get together on the cost. (I do most of the work myself but some jobs are better hired out)

Wow, that would be a great addition!

This is the link to the old one: http://www.zen-cart.com/archived_contributions/admin-tools/zenpdfcreator_0.96.zip

I managed to get rid of the SQL error but now get a blank page when I click on Extras=>Generate PDF Catalogue in the admin. I am using 1.3.9f.

To get rid of the SQL error, replace the admin/pdf_catalogue.php file with the one I've attached to this post.

Anyone have any thoughts on the blank page issue?

Is anything showing up in your cache folder?

Yes, it says this:

[07-Sep-2010 19:53:46] PHP Fatal error: Cannot access empty property in /test1/admin/pdf_catalogue.php on line 606

Line 606 is:

$this->$parent_category_name='';

I'm not sure that's the real problem. I'm thinking the MySql in the file is not compatible with the current database.

I'll try to look tomorrow er.... Later today.

Yeah I followed suggestions in a few other threads to bring the SQL up to date, and the SQL error did disappear, but I don't work much with straight SQL, so there are probably more changes that need to be made.

poking this to top of the pile...

Added this and getting the same 'Empty' error... even with the update file. Tried a fe things but I'm still a noob with PHP, so still showing a blank page with the /cache file stating the obvious same error.

quick question - does the error parse out the true line number where the error occurs or is it off by +/- 1 or 2 lines?

Just curious...

Fez-o Joe:

poking this to top of the pile...

:clap:

OK, I've got the code working, created the PDF and it's looking fine. (albeit 145+ pages! :shocking:)

I'll clean up the php and repost it here, shortly.

Other helpful tips:

You have to have more than 32Megs on your php.ini file or it'll error out - I've updated mine to 96M and it works. If you can change your php.ini file it's:

memory_llimit = 96M

Put that at the end of the file. If you can't change yours - call your server host and ask them to change it. :)

I'll be working on reformatting the pdf slightly as it only lists 5 or 6 products per page.

Good luck.