The boilerplate uses the python framework flask to run the webinterface and to generate the HTML of the book. To generate the PDF it uses the javascript library pagedjs together with the chromium webbrowser in headless mode.

Installation

First download it on gitlab.

Or clone the repository:

git clone git@gitlab.constantvzw.org:anais_berck/pagedjs-flask-boilerplate.git

This boilerplate uses Python 3 and the framework Flask.

Find information on how to install python here

To install the requirements, move to the directory this readme is located in, and then run. Optionally create a virtual environment:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Then install pagedjs-cli, with the command:

npm install -g pagedjs-cli

___ in case pagedjs-cli does not show up, follow these instructions:

check the version of node (this should be: v16.17.0) '$ node --version'

check if nvm is installed '$ nvm'

if nvm does not show up, install nvm with the following command: '$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash'

copy the following code into the terminal: 'export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm [ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" # This loads nvm bash_completion'

install the latest version of nvm: '$ nvm install --lts'

check the version of node (this should be: v16.17.0) '$ node --version'

now install paged.js: $ npm install -g pagedjs-cli

check if it is installed: $ whereis pagedjs-cli

add this path to settings.py /home/ana/.nvm/versions/node/v16.17.0/bin/pagedjs-cli

Finally edit a copy of settings.example.py and save it as settings.py. It is important to set the PAGEDJS_BINARY_PATH, you should be able to find it by running: whereis pagedjs-cli.

Now you should be able to start the interface with: ./run.sh.

Contents of the boilerplate

• app.py the flask webapp, generating the views
• pagedjs.py helper functions to run pagedjs-cli from python
• utils.py utitilities for generative books
• templates/index.html template for the index
• templates/book.html template for the book itself
• static/style.css css style rules for the index and book (it's possible to split them up, also adjust the templates then)
• static/pagedjs.interface.css css style rules provided by paged.js to have a more rich preview in debug mode

Usage

The boilerplate essentially has two views: index and generate. The index shows the homepage and a link to the generate function. In this example the generated book is downloaded as a PDF.

The template templates/book.html is used with styles from static/style.css to generate the PDF, adjust them to adjust your book. In app.py the function generate loads the template, adjust that function to generate context and / or HTML.

In the documentation of paged.js a lot of information on print specific functionality in CSS can be found.

Deployment

Todo

Note: this boilerplate does not make any effort at rate-limiting.