Generating and Downloading PDFs Using Spring Boot and Thymeleaf

Generating PDFs is a common requirement in web applications for generating reports, invoices, or receipts. In this article, we will explore how to generate and download PDFs using Spring Boot and Thymeleaf. We will walk through the steps of setting up the project, integrating Thymeleaf templates, and generating a PDF file using IText.

1. Setting Up the Project

Create a new Spring Boot application using your preferred IDE or by using the Spring Initializr. Add the following dependencies to your pom.xml file:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
        <artifactId>itext7-core</artifactId>
        <version>7.2.3</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Run mvn clean install to ensure all dependencies are downloaded.

2. Creating the Thymeleaf Template