cfhtmltopdf is not working in CF2023

[Bala P]

Hi Team,

Recently, we migrated our application from CF2021 to CF2023. Post-migration, we are facing issues with the <cfhtmltopdf> tag, which is not working as intended.

Below is a code snippet, and it is working in CF2021, but the same is not working in CF2023.

<cfhtmltopdf
	encryption = "none"
	saveAsName = "test.pdf"
	name="binaryData"
	orientation = "landscape"
	overwrite = "yes"
>
	Test PDF Data...
</cfhtmltopdf>

<cfdump var="#binaryData#">​

CF2021:

CF2023:

Currently, the application is running on CF2023 Update 16.

Verified "PDF Service Managers" is enabled. Additionally, I cleared the felix-cache, reinstalled the "htmltopdf" package and restarted the services, but no luck still getting the same error.

What am I missing here? Experts, please share your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Bala.P

[Charlie Arehart · Accepted solution]

I think I see the problem, Bala, and I do appreciate how frustrating it would be.

First, I think you'll find that what you're "missing" is that you assert that you "Verified "PDF Service Managers" is enabled", but your screenshot shows it is NOT enabled. Instead, you likely mean you clicked the (second) "Verify" button...and the "connection status" column indeed shows "ok". But that's only verifying that with those values CF COULD indeed REACH the PDF service, but it does not test also that the PDF service is in fact ENABLED.

Your screesnhot shows that the the (third) "Enable" button is black while the (fourth) "Disable" button is greyed out. Click the enable button and try your test again. 

Does that get things going?

Assume it does, and as for the frustrating experience, we could contend first that the verify button should do both, but it does not. This is similar to how the mail page in the CF admin works, with its option to "Verify mail server connection": that also merely checks if CF can REACH the SMTP server...but in some situations no email will actually be deliverable to that mail server for other reasons.

And next you may well wonder why "it didn't tell you that was the problem", but note first that if you look in the application.log, coldfusion-out.log, or exception.log you should see it reporting "No Service manager is available." As for why the tag does not fail in such a way as to show an error (or even be able to be caught in error handling), note that someone raised a bug report about that, which Adobe has marked as "verified" and "to fix".

Finally, if you may find that simply trying to "enable" the service now fails, that can be a result of any number of problems. If it happens, let us know and we can guide you to next steps.

[Bala P]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the detailed explanation — it really helped clarify things.

You’re right, I had assumed that clicking the Verify button meant the service was enabled. I’ve now enabled the PDF Service Manager as you suggested.

It’s working fine now, and I’m able to see the expected results.

Thanks again for your help, Charlie.

Regards,
Bala P.

[Charlie Arehart]

Great to hear that it worked for you. Again, bummer that this can hapoen. Besides that bug report (about getting cf to better report the error), at least now this discussion thread may prove helpful to others who find it, seeking help with the same problem. Finally, thanks for marking the reply as an answer. Glad to have helped. 

[Paolo Olocco]

I also ran into this problem a few days ago.

imho there should be a column that indicates the activation status, not just changing the icon is enough.

in your case, the code still breaks, but as reported by the bug Charlie pointed out, in other cases it doesn't even throw exceptions, and that's not good