Templates not loading in PDF letters for contacts

[Denim]

After an upgrade to 4.5 on Drupal 7, the templates no longer load when using Print PDF Letter for Contacts.  No problem using them with CiviMail.  And it worked on 4.4 (as it does on the demo site).

I noticed a discussion re: Replacing DOMPDF with TCPDF here: https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-14567.  The change was rolled back, but could this have caused the problem?

I haven't seen any other questions about this on the forums, but it's (very) early days yet for 4.5.  Anyone else having PDF trouble with 4.5? 

[Tony Jaques]

Dunno if relevant, but I'm a novice user, currently trying to compose pdf letters for contacts in a smart group. Get to the foot of the letter, hit MAKE PDF LETTERS and all I get is a pause for a few seconds and then a white screen (the manual suggests I'll get a pop-up screen to Open or Save the downloads). Very frustrating. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or there is some glitch. Anyone help please?

[JonGold]

Hi Tony,

I think your issue is unrelated - so you're better off starting your own topic instead!

Regarding your issue (Tony) - PDF generation is one of the more processing-intensive things that CiviCRM does.  So it could be that you're exceeding the CPU capacity that your web host has allocated for you.  A good way to check is to try to generate only 1-2 of the same PDF letters and see if you get the same issue.  If you can get some but not all, the issue is almost certainly that you need more server power.  At that point, I'd talk to whomever is responsible - it may be that you can tweak your existing settings (especially if the issue is a PHP timeout or memory limit), or it may be that you need a heftier server.

If you experience the problem even with just 1-2 PDF letters, you can try checking your error logs (both Apache and CiviCRM's).  See also this thread: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=24422.0

[Tony Jaques]

Thanks JonGold, very helpful.

[bighudsonnut]

I am experiencing the same problem.  I dont think this is a memory issue as the template is not loading, so you don't even get an opportunity to create a PDF.  If I go to Civimail, I can pull up any template.  I can pull them up in Message templates and edit.  When I go to Create PDF letter, and select the template, nothing appears.  The template appears blank. 

[bighudsonnut]

Here is the difference.  In the one picture I have pulled up Send an e-mail and the New Member Letter comes up with Logo.  In the other picture I selected the same template for Create PDF Letter and nothing happens.  Some thing seems to be wrong with the call for Create PDF Letter in 4.5.0.  I have not had any issues with this before I upgraded.

[JonGold]

Denim, bighudsonnut - I agree that the problem you're seeing is a bug, and almost certainly not one caused by a memory issue.  I'd recommend making sure you can replicate the problem on the demo 4.5 server (might still be called "sandbox" for 4.5), then submitting a bug report on issues.civicrm.org.  Be sure to include:
* The steps to replicate on the demo server
* A link to this forum thread
* An explicit statement that this worked pre-upgrade in 4.4.

[bighudsonnut]

So tried to replicate the problem on the demo server, but the template came up in both the email and create pdf letter.  I guess I need to figure out why mine is not coming up.

Aaron

[Kirk]

As far as I can tell this is actually a bug that was introduced in CiviCRM 4.5. It can be reproduced on the 4.5 Drupal sandbox (drupal.sandbox.civicrm.org) and the 4.5 WordPress sandbox (wordpress.sandbox.civicrm.org).

@bighudsonnut, you may have been trying to reproduce the error on one of the main demo environments, e.g. drupal.demo.civicrm.org, which are still running version 4.4.

I have created an issue on the tracker, which you can follow for updates on this bug: CRM-15383. Hopefully it'll be fixed in time for the release of 4.5.1.

UPDATE: This bug has been fixed and the fix will be in version 4.5.1.

[Denim]

The patch at  https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/4280 did the trick.

Thanks to those who tracked down and squashed the bug - quite happy to be able to create PDFs again!