Merging PDF files with PHP

Question

I have several PDF files created dynamically using TCPDF.

I have to merge those PDF's created by TCPDF into one, and as I saw best practice is to do that with FPDI library.

All PDF's that have to be merged are stored in same directory.

To merge them, I'm using next code:

require( MY_APP_PATH . 'fpdf/fpdf.php');
require( MY_APP_PATH . 'fpdi/fpdi.php');


$fpdi = new FPDI();
// iterate over array of files and merge
foreach ($filesToMerge as $file) {
    $fpdi->setSourceFile(MY_APP_PATH . 'pdf/' . $file);
    $tpl = $fpdi->importPage(1, '/MediaBox');
    $fpdi->addPage();
    $fpdi->useTemplate($tpl);
}

$fpdi->Output('F', 'merged.pdf');

Error I'm getting here is:

TCPDF ERROR: Incorrect output destination: /VAR/WWW/HTML/MYAPP/PDF/MERGED.PDF

Looks like there is some collision between TCPDF and FPDI libraries (or even FPDF?), since they both have have same method Output.

Also, it works fine if I run it in separate code (without including TCPDF class)

Can you give me some idea how to avoid this and merge my PDF's?

Answer 1

Just change the order of the Output() parameters. The order was changed in the latest FPDF version but internally both orders are supported while TCPDF only supports $name followed by $dest.

FPDI will extend the TCPDF class if it is available. If it's not available it will extend FPDF .