runsnippet from a link?

Is this possible?

I’m redeveloping an existing site using modx. I have a link that passes the ID in the url to a php script generate-pdf.php.

The php script has been created outside of modx. So when I try to access variables in this script using getTemplateVar() I get a fatal error "Call to a member function on a non-object"

The alternative would be to move the contents of generate-pdf.php to a snippet. The problem with this is I’m not sure how to then run the snippet and pass the id from a link.

Evolution 1.0.0

Any ideas much appreciated
Thanks

Something like this might work:

Create a new page to hold the get_pdf snippet call, this is the page you will direct the user to from the link you create. ex: [!get_pdf!]

Make your get_pdf snippet something like this:


Then your link would look something like this (replacing the XX with the document id which you created to hold the snippet call):
w/o friendly urls:
<a href="index.php?id=XX&mid=[*id*]" target="_blank">

with friendly urls:
<a href="[~XX~]?mid=[*id*]" target="_blank">

Hope this helps

Thanks so much for taking the time to do that Breezer, it works great. Unfortunately I now have another related problem.

Using your code I can now pass the id to the snippet and trigger the PDF code. The problem is instead of producing a PDF it outputs the contents of the PDF to the browser. This is because the PDF script is being called from within an HTML page I think, see here, http://www.fpdf.org/en/FAQ.php#q2

Using the previous method (php script outside of modx) the PDF is created fine, but I have the problem of passing/accessing TVs from this script.

So my options are:

1. Back to original plan, external PHP file and try to get modx API working in that file so I can access TV’s

2. Write my own PHP file to connect to the database directly to get values I need. I’m currently trying this but have just descended into SQL hell.

3. Go to the pub.

Any bright ideas welcome.
thanks!

Go and edit the document properties on pdf landing page you have the snippet call on, make the template (blank) and set the content type to application/pdf and see if that helps.

Breezer!! massive thanks. That has got it working.

Now I’ve got it working I’ve just discovered a snippet that does something very similar. I guess I should check it out.

Many thanks for all the help.