[php] FPDF error: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF

I am using the fpdf library for my project, and I'm using this to extend one of the drupal module. These lines

$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$pdf->Output();

give me an error: FPDF error: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF

I tried creating this in a separate file outside the drupal area name test.php and when viewed it worked. Anyone here know why this don't work? Or anyone here can point me a right pdf library which I can use in drupal to view HTML to PDF format.

This question is related to php drupal fpdf

The answer is


For fpdf to work properly, there cannot be any output at all beside what fpdf generates. For example, this will work:

<?php
$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$pdf->Output();
?>

While this will not (note the leading space before the opening <? tag)

 <?php
$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$pdf->Output();
?>

Also, this will not work either (the echo will break it):

<?php
echo "About to create pdf";
$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$pdf->Output();
?>

I'm not sure about the drupal side of things, but I know that absolutely zero non-fpdf output is a requirement for fpdf to work.


add ob_start (); at the top and at the end add ob_end_flush();

<?php
    ob_start();
    require('fpdf.php');
    $pdf = new FPDF();
    $pdf->AddPage();
    $pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
    $pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
    $pdf->Output();
    ob_end_flush(); 
?>

give me an error as below:
FPDF error: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF

to over come this error: go to fpdf.php in that,goto line number 996

function Output($name='', $dest='')

after that make changes like this:

function Output($name='', $dest='') {   
    ob_clean();     //Output PDF to so

Hi do you have a session header on the top of your page. or any includes If you have then try to add this codes on top pf your page it should works fine.

<?

while (ob_get_level())
ob_end_clean();
header("Content-Encoding: None", true);

?>

cheers :-)


In my case i had set:

ini_set('display_errors', 'on');
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

When i made the request to generate the report, some warnings were displayed in the browser (like the usage of deprecated functions).
Turning off the display_errors option, the report was generated successfully.