How would one convert an image to a PDF using HealthShare
Suppose I have an image and need to convert that image into a PDF for inclusion in an HL7.
I know that Zen Reports can display an image in a PDF but I do not want to view the image in a web page. I just need to convert the image to PDF in a Process and then include that PDF in an HL7. The workflow would be like this:
Get image -> Convert image into PDF -> Include PDF in HL7 OBX.
I know how to do the last part to include PDF in HL7 OBX. Just need ideas on the first part.
Hi Randy,
I've been around the block on this problem.
There is no simple native solution. I have tried to create a native COS to PDF generator but its a much bigger problem than time affords.
I know you are asking for a solution that does not include creating a web page, BUT, with exception of going to some other document type (e.g. DOC to PDF) you really have no other easy choice.
However, there is a better way than Zen reports to implement this (IMHO). I use wkhtmltopdf...
https://wkhtmltopdf.org/
It's an executable that takes the name of an HTML file and produces a PDF file. You can also control headers, page numbers etc with it. It's rock solid and really easy to use.
Essentially...
1. Create a simple HTML string with an img tag and save it to a file.
2. Call out to wkhtmltopdf using $ZF passing in the name of the files
Done.
If you want to be clever and not save the image to a linked file then you can take its base64 directly from the HL7 message and embed it into the img tag, e.g.
<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgo...">
I have wkhtmltopdf running at numerous hospitals turning out upwards of 10,000 letters a day, rock solid, no problems.
Hope that helps.
Sean.
As a side thought. If all you want is an image in the PDF file and no text then you might also want to take a look at...
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
which is another battle tested library.
I have used it for image to image but not image to PDF so can't confirm how good it is.