PDF Export in Bubble

Overview

The PDF Export by PDFCrowd plugin adds PDF conversion actions to Bubble workflows. The actions convert a webpage URL, an HTML string or an HTML file to PDF.

Set up the plugin

1. Install the "PDF Export by PDFCrowd" plugin.
2. Connect your PDFCrowd account by configuring the plugin's credentials.
3. Add an action for a publicly accessible webpage URL, an HTML string or an HTML file. Use dynamic data from your Bubble database to prepare HTML content.
4. Optionally set PDF options such as page size, margins, headers and footers.
5. Get a downloadable PDF file URL to use in your workflows.

Open in Bubble

Quick Start

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

Enter your PDFCrowd username and API key in the PDF Export by PDFCrowd plugin settings under Plugins. You can run the examples without a PDFCrowd account by entering demo in both credential fields.

text: <html>
<body>
  <h1>Invoice #12345</h1>
  <p>Amount: $99.00</p>
  <p>Date: January 8, 2026</p>
</body>
</html>

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

• PDFCrowd Support: Contact us for API-related questions
• API Playground: Test conversions in our API Playground to verify settings before using in Bubble
• Bubble Forum: Bubble Community Forum for plugin-related questions

Bubble Reference

Refer for details to the Bubble Reference.