How to Export data to PDF in Spring Boot

How to Export data to PDF in Spring Boot Application. In this article, we will understand How to Export data to PDF in Spring Boot Application.

In a web application, there can be a requirement where you want to export the data to a PDF file. Through this article, you will get a clear idea of How to Export data to PDF in the Spring Boot Application. Here, we will use the OpenPDF Java library to generate PDF. Now, let us create a simple example where we will export the data to PDF.

Export Data to PDF in Spring Boot

Create Project

Create a project using Spring Initializr. If you don’t know how to create a project using the same check this article https://codedec.com/tutorials/how-to-create-spring-boot-project-using-spring-initializr/

Import a Project

Now, it’s time to import the project into STS. Go to File > Import > Maven > Existing Maven Project > Next > Browse > Select the project > Finish. Now it will take time to import the project and will import all the dependencies in case you added.

Project Structure

Add the OpenPDF Dependency

<dependency>
 <groupId>com.github.librepdf</groupId>
 <artifactId>openpdf</artifactId>
 <version>1.3.8</version>
</dependency>

Configure application. properties file

# change the port
server.port=8889
#Database Configrations
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/db_demo
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=root
spring.jpa.database-platform = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL8Dialect
spring.jpa.generate-ddl=true
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto = update

Create a Model Class

Here, we will create a Model class called Vehicle.java. I have used the Lombok library to remove boilerplate code. Check this article to know about Lombok Lombok Tutorial.

package com.abc.demo.model;

import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.Table;

import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Getter;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Setter;

@Setter
@Getter
@AllArgsConstructor
@NoArgsConstructor
@Entity
@Table(name = "pdf_vehicle")
public class Vehicle {

 @Id
 @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
 private long id;	
 private String vehicleName;	
 private String modelName;	
 private String brand;	
 private String vehicleNo;
}

Create Repository Interface

Now, we will create a Data Access Layer called VehicleRepository which will extend JPARepository.

package com.abc.demo.dao;

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;

import com.abc.demo.model.Vehicle;

public interface VehicleRepository extends JpaRepository<Vehicle, Long>  {

}

Create a Service Layer

In this layer, we will create a VehicleService class that will fetch all the lists of vehicles from the database.

package com.abc.demo.service;

import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

import com.abc.demo.dao.VehicleRepository;
import com.abc.demo.model.Vehicle;


@Service
public class VehicleService {

 @Autowired
 private VehicleRepository repository;
 
 public List<Vehicle> getAllUser(){
  return repository.findAll();
 }
}

Create Utility class

Here, we will create a PDFGeneratorVehicle.java class that will export the data to the PDF document.

package com.abc.demo.dao.util;

import java.awt.Color;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.List;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

import com.abc.demo.model.Vehicle;
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.Font;
import com.lowagie.text.FontFactory;
import com.lowagie.text.PageSize;
import com.lowagie.text.Paragraph;
import com.lowagie.text.Phrase;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;
@Setter
public class PDFGeneratorVehicle {

 private List<Vehicle> vehicleList;

 public void generate(HttpServletResponse response) throws DocumentException, IOException {
  // Create the Object of Document
  Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4);
  // get the document and write the response to output stream
  PdfWriter.getInstance(document, response.getOutputStream());
  document.open();

  // Add Font
  Font fontTiltle = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.TIMES_ROMAN);
  fontTiltle.setSize(20);
                // Create Object of Paragraph
  Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph("Vehicle List", fontTiltle);
  paragraph.setAlignment(Paragraph.ALIGN_CENTER);

  // Add to the document
  document.add(paragraph);

  PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(5);
  table.setWidthPercentage(100f);
  table.setWidths(new int[] { 1, 1, 3, 2, 4 });
  table.setSpacingBefore(5);
  // Create Table Header
  PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell();
  cell.setBackgroundColor(Color.MAGENTA);
  cell.setPadding(5);
  // Add Font
  Font font = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.TIMES_ROMAN);
  font.setColor(Color.WHITE);

  cell.setPhrase(new Phrase("ID", font));

  table.addCell(cell);

  cell.setPhrase(new Phrase("Vehicle Name", font));
  table.addCell(cell);

  cell.setPhrase(new Phrase("Model Name", font));
  table.addCell(cell);

  cell.setPhrase(new Phrase("Brand", font));
  table.addCell(cell);

  cell.setPhrase(new Phrase("Vehicle Number", font));
  table.addCell(cell);

  for (Vehicle vehicle : vehicleList) {
   table.addCell(String.valueOf(vehicle.getId()));
   table.addCell(vehicle.getVehicleName());
   table.addCell(vehicle.getModelName());
   table.addCell(vehicle.getBrand());
   table.addCell(vehicle.getVehicleNo());
  }
  // Add table to document
  document.add(table);
  document.close();
 }
}

• Inside generate() method, first create the object of Document class. Now, get the document and write a response to the output stream.
• Now, add a font to the document. Create the Object of Paragraph (It is a series of chunks & phrases). Now, add this paragraph to the document.
• Now Create a Table using PDFTable class with 5 columns. Add the font, width, and Phrases to the table.
• Now, iterate over the list and add it to the table. At last, add it to the document object.

Create Controller Class

Create a TestController to handle requests. The request for the web page will be handle by the handler methods in the controller

package com.abc.demo.ctl;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import com.abc.demo.dao.util.PDFGeneratorVehicle;
import com.abc.demo.model.Vehicle;
import com.abc.demo.service.VehicleService;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;

@Controller
public class TestController {
 
 @Autowired
 private VehicleService vehicleService;
 @GetMapping("/pdf/vehicle")
 public void generator(HttpServletResponse response) throws DocumentException, IOException {
  response.setContentType("application/pdf");
  DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-DD:HH:MM:SS");
  String currentDateTime = dateFormat.format(new Date());
  String headerkey = "Content-Disposition";
  String headervalue = "attachment; filename=pdf_"+currentDateTime+".pdf";
  response.setHeader(headerkey, headervalue);
  List<Vehicle> vehicleList = vehicleService.getAllUser();
  PDFGeneratorVehicle generetorUser = new PDFGeneratorVehicle();
  generetorUser.setVehicleList(vehicleList);
  generetorUser.generate(response);
 }
}

Here, we get the list of vehicles from the database and pass it to the PDFGeneratorVehicle class and hence called the generate() method.

Run the Application

package com.abc.demo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

import com.abc.demo.dao.VehicleRepository;
import com.abc.demo.model.Vehicle;

@SpringBootApplication
public class PdfGeneratorExampleUsingSbApplication implements CommandLineRunner {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
  SpringApplication.run(PdfGeneratorExampleUsingSbApplication.class, args);
 }

 @Autowired
 private VehicleRepository repo;

 @Override
 public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub

  for (int i = 0; i < 23; i++) {
   Vehicle vehicle = new Vehicle();
   vehicle.setVehicleName("Swift" + i);
   vehicle.setModelName("M1526" + i);
   vehicle.setBrand("Swift" + i);
   vehicle.setVehicleNo("MH-516515313" + i);
   repo.save(vehicle);
  }
 }
}

Now, Run the Application class and Go to localhost:8889/pdf/vehicle and here you will see the PDF document is generated automatically.

In this way, you can generate PDF documents in a Spring Boot Application.