Symfony2 outputting pdf using FPDF - symfony

Question

How do I return a response in Symfony to output a pdf? I'm currently using FPDF as I don't want to use any bundles. Here is my controller action:
public function pdfAction(Request $request) {
//grab from database
$pdf = new \FPDF;
for($i = 0; $i < count($entities); $i++) {
//manipulate data
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->SetFont("Helvetica","","14");
$pdf->SetTextColor(255, 255, 255);
}
$pdf->Output();
return new Response($pdf, 200, array(
'Content-Type' => 'pdf'));
}
With this all I'm getting is a page with gibberish characters. I'm quite new to I/O manipulations so any help would be great. Thank you..

Answer 1

You need to set proper Content-Type of your response. Also, don't send your FPDF object as a content of your response, but rather the PDF output. Try this:
public function pdfAction(Request $request) {
//................//
return new Response($pdf->Output(), 200, array(
'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf'));
}
UPDATE:
To get your generated PDF file downloaded instead of displayed, you need to set disposition to attachment:
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ResponseHeaderBag;
public function pdfAction(Request $request) {
//................//
$response = new Response(
$pdf->Output(),
Response::HTTP_OK,
array('content-type' => 'application/pdf')
);
$d = $response->headers->makeDisposition(
ResponseHeaderBag::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
'foo.pdf'
);
$response->headers->set('Content-Disposition', $d);
return $response;
}
http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/http_foundation/introduction.html#serving-files

Answer 2

In symfony 2.7, I'm having a "Corrupted content" while trying to set the Content-Disposition. My fix is:
public function pdfAction(Request $request) {
//................//
$response = new Response(
$pdf->Output(),
Response::HTTP_OK,
array('content-type' => 'application/pdf')
);
return $response;
}