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PDF Export in Bubble

Integrate HTML to PDF Conversion with Bubble

Overview

PDF Export lets you convert HTML content or web pages to PDF directly within your Bubble applications. Bubble is a powerful no-code platform for building web applications. No coding required - simply install the plugin, connect your PDFCrowd account, and automate PDF generation.

Perfect for: Generating invoices, reports, receipts, contracts, and any document that needs to be created automatically from HTML templates or web page content.

Key Features

  • URL to PDF: Convert any publicly accessible web page to PDF
  • HTML to PDF: Convert raw HTML content from your Bubble app
  • Seamless Bubble integration: Use dynamic data from your Bubble database in PDF generation
  • Full customization: Control page size, margins, headers, footers, and more
  • File output: Get a downloadable PDF file URL to use in your workflows

How It Works

  1. Install the "PDF Export by PDFCrowd" plugin
  2. Connect your PDFCrowd account
  3. Add a workflow action to convert URL or HTML to PDF
  4. Configure PDF options (optional)
  5. Use the generated PDF file in your app

Open in Bubble

Quick Start

The following examples demonstrate how to use the PDFCrowd Bubble plugin to convert HTML to PDF.

Note: You'll need a PDFCrowd account with API access. For testing, you can use username demo and API key demo. Sign up to get your own API credentials.

Example 1: Convert a URL to PDF

The simplest use case - convert a web page URL to PDF. This works for any publicly accessible URL.

Workflow Configuration
Action: Export URL to PDF
Parameters: url: https://example.com/invoice/123

The action returns the PDF file data. You can save it to your Bubble database or provide it as a download to the user.

Example 2: Convert HTML String to PDF

Convert HTML content directly - useful when generating PDFs from templates or dynamic content in your Bubble app.

Workflow Configuration
Action: Export HTML String to PDF
Parameters: 
text: <html>
<body>
  <h1>Invoice #12345</h1>
  <p>Amount: $99.00</p>
  <p>Date: January 8, 2026</p>
</body>
</html>

Use Bubble's dynamic data to generate HTML content from your database records or user inputs.

Example 3: Upload and Convert HTML File

Upload an HTML file for conversion - useful for batch processing or converting existing documents stored in your Bubble app.

Workflow Configuration
Action: Export File to PDF
Parameters: file: Select a file from your Bubble file uploader or database

Authentication

Setting Up Your PDFCrowd Credentials

The PDFCrowd Bubble plugin uses your PDFCrowd API credentials for authentication. The plugin is configured to use your credentials from the plugin settings.

Required Credentials

username
Your PDFCrowd username - the same username you use to log in to your PDFCrowd account.
api_key
Your PDFCrowd API key (not your account password). To get your API key, choose a license plan that includes API access.

Setting Up Credentials in Bubble

  1. In your Bubble app, go to the Plugins tab
  2. Find the PDF Export by PDFCrowd plugin
  3. Enter your credentials:
    • username - set to your PDFCrowd username
    • api_key - set to your PDFCrowd API key
  4. Save the plugin settings

Security Notes

  • Your API key is stored securely in Bubble's plugin settings.
  • You can regenerate your API key anytime from your PDFCrowd account if needed.
  • Each API request counts against your account's usage limits.

Error Handling

When a conversion fails, the plugin returns an error message explaining what went wrong.

Common Errors

401 Unauthorized
Invalid username or API key. Verify your credentials in the Bubble plugin settings. Make sure you're using your API key, not your account password.
403 Forbidden
Service suspended or insufficient credits. Check your PDFCrowd account for credit balance and account status.
400 Bad Request
Invalid parameters or missing required fields. Check that you've provided either a url, text, or file parameter.
430 Too Many Concurrent Requests
Too many simultaneous conversions. Your plan has a limit on concurrent requests. Wait for current conversions to complete or upgrade your plan.

For more information on status codes, see our status codes reference.

Debugging Tips

  • Check the workflow debugger: Bubble's debugger shows detailed error messages from the plugin.
  • Verify authentication: Double-check your username and API key in the plugin settings.
  • Test URLs manually: Before converting, test your URL in our API Playground to verify it converts correctly.
  • Simplify first: Start with minimal parameters and add options one at a time to identify problematic settings.

Handling Errors in Workflows

You can handle errors in your Bubble workflows by checking the action's result and displaying appropriate messages to users:

  • Use conditional actions to check if the conversion succeeded
  • Display user-friendly error messages when conversions fail
  • Log errors for debugging purposes

Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions when using PDFCrowd with Bubble.

Connection Issues

  • Verify you're using your API key, not your account password
  • If you changed your API key in PDFCrowd, update it in the plugin settings
  • Try regenerating your API key and reconnecting

Conversion Issues

PDF looks different than expected

  • Missing styles: The page may rely on styles that don't load during conversion. Try the Content Viewport Width option to adjust rendering width.
  • Dynamic content: JavaScript-generated content may not render. Use the Wait For Element or Javascript Delay options to allow content to load.
  • Login required: Pages behind authentication require cookies to be set. Use the Cookies option to pass session cookies.

Images not appearing

  • Ensure images use absolute URLs (not relative paths)
  • Check that images are publicly accessible
  • Some images may be lazy-loaded - use Content Viewport Height set to large

Conversion is slow

  • Large pages with many images take longer to process
  • Pages with heavy JavaScript may need time to render
  • Consider using simpler HTML templates for faster conversion

Output Issues

Can't use PDF file in workflow

The PDFCrowd plugin outputs a temporary file URL. Some Bubble elements may have limitations on accepting file URLs. In such cases:

  • Save the file to your Bubble database first
  • Use the URL directly in a download link or external service

File name incorrect

Set the Output Filename field to customize the PDF filename. You can use dynamic data from your Bubble app to create dynamic filenames.

Getting Help

Bubble Reference

Refer for details to the Bubble Reference.