After releasing my latest plugin, I was looking for inspiration and I came here to ask the community if there’s anything that a lot of people need.
I ask you, anyone have any ideas for a new plugin?
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We really need a quick way to create a pdf with nice page breaks. Without the use of an API. Bubble was working on this but then dropped it when the intern left.
Basically a better alternative to SelectPDF.
There are a lot of plugins that just use APIs. Only one or two can do this but they are missing these key points.
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Needs to be able to create on the backend workflows.
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Needs to be quick without relying on an API to do the job.
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Nice page breaks to not cut off content
You think this is possible? I have multiple clients looking for this type of plugin. 
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Thanks for the reply.
So you want to create a pdf from a list of things, or what exactly?
I’m interested 
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I think it would have to be flexible. Creating a page and then printing from that would be good. Like, creating an invoice for a client. A very typical requirement for a business. Also being able to merge the pages into one pdf. Or merge PDFs after they have been created. Does that make sense?
The best one I have seen so far is PDF Conjurer Plugin | Bubble but it’s hard to use and I’m not sure if it can be used on the backend workflows. I can’t remember. It worked for some quick and ugly downloads of lists really well but really hard to make a nice looking custom invoice.
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In summary, the plugin needs to:
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Generate a PDF file from a URL
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Be able to run in a backend workflow (in other words, this needs to be serverside)
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Look pretty, have nice line breaks
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APIs are a no-no
Does this sound right? If so, I think I can get something for you then …
I’m wondering if 20 - 50$ price point is reasonable for this sort of thing?
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By the way, why not Bubble Page to PDF converter by Zeroqode?
What’s the issue with that one?
For a one time charge? $20-$50?
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Yup, one time charge
I use that one in one product. Pretty slow and not good quality. It basically takes a screenshot of the page and converts it to a pdf. I don’t think it runs on the backend. I can’t remember for sure though. Each plugin had positives and negatives.
Speed and PDF quality is important which I think it lacked. The quality of PDF conjurer and speed was really good. And it didn’t rely on an API either.
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I noticed that too. I tried the demo, it took forever. I think I have a solution. I’ll do some testing and come back with that info
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Sounds good. I have at least one client that will probably test it out right away for you. I can also do some testing for you to see if it works well. I would replace my solution with yours too if it works well.
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Yeah. That’s reasonable. I would pay that. 
I’m very curious to see what sort of solution you will come up with. I feel likes it could be awesome potentially but I’m trying to not get my hopes up.
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+1 for a solid pdf solution. My go-to is using css media queries then printing, or using external services, but something that doesn’t require 3rd party would be great. Ditto on what @J805 said, needs to not be a screenshot generation, something fairly quick, that works in the backend as well.
Keep us posted if you come up with something, would love to give it a try.
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Make sure to have a low monthly subscription so we can test before we purchase it in full. 
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I have been looking for a good plugin to create csv/excel out of repeating group that i have.
Existing plugins don’t work well. Most only convert visible data only etc
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I’m beginning to understand why the perfect PDF plugin doesn’t exist already. I’m by no means a Node Js expert or anything (so take what I say with a big grain of salt) but this is what I’ve gathered so far:
There used to be two ways to generate a PDF from a URL. The first was using a service (really a NPM package) called PhantomJs and the second was a service called Puppeteer. These are headless browsers that run on the server, and what they do is actually install the browser to the server, go to the URL you provide and then they print the page as a PDF as you would if you pressed CTRL + P when browsing a page. PhantomJs is now deprecated and no longer works, so we are left with Puppeteer.
Unfortunately, Bubble limits plugin developers in the amount of space we are allowed to used when creating server-side actions. Puppeteer fails to install because it’s too large… the Puppeteer method is a very popular and accepted method to do this server side. Because of this, I can’t find any other methods of doing this online. 
I see someone made a post about this before here on the forums
I think you will have to live with sub-par PDF generation until bubble expands how much space we can use on the server side, unfortunately!
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@grace.hong This is an interesting discussion. We all know that a solid PDF solution is needed. @josh mentioned in the past, prior to the latest funding round, that they were working on a PDF solution.
Any word on this perhaps? 
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@cmarchan @J805 we are all in the same boat I think I’m fiddling around with a pdf creator plug-in using a template approach. (With google docs, but docx format is a fall back) It seems to deal with page breaks really well, but still looking for a bubble friendly way to insert dynamic images (eg think like a repeating group of images). I’m collaborating with @jizreel_alencar who has made a lot of progress with this already. Any way hope you are both well 
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Hi!
PDF Conjurer does support backend workflows and while it may look daunting to use at first it’s actually pretty straight forward. Check out the documentation first and then head to the forum if you need more specific help.
I’ve been using it for a while and hasn’t failed on me so far (once i got it all setup).
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+1 for the PDF solution!
I would also be more than happy to pay the suggested price for a flexible PDF tool as described.
Good luck on devising the solution!
Thanks for asking the community - a true hero! 
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