PDFLayer integration sunset from LifterLMS PDFS

The release of LifterLMS PDFs 2.0 removes the former integration with the PDFLayer API in favor of a new method of generating PDFs that requires no external dependencies.

The integration with PDFLayer was developed and released in late 2019. Since then we have fielded numerous bug and issue reports from our users. Some of these issues are minor and have been resolved with custom CSS yet the more glaring issues, which we’ve been able to reduce to issues within PDFLayer’s service, have gone unresolved.

We have attempted to communicate and collaborate with PDFLayer in order to resolve these issues but have been unable to do so. In all cases, our emails and support requests are ultimately met with silence.

With the imminent release of LifterLMS 6.0 and the subsequent changes to certificate design and functionality we’ve run into even more issues with the PDFLayer API and have decided that it is time to shut down our integration and pursue alternative solutions for PDF generation within LifterLMS.

After upgrading to LifterLMS 2.0, you may wish to cancel your PDFLayer subscription as it is no longer required for PDF generation within LifterLMS.

The replacement, available with LifterLMS PDFs v2.0, utilizes client-side Javascript to generate a PDF within the user’s browser. The result is that no external API requests or services are required in order to generate PDFs.

When upgrading from LifterLMS PDFs v1.0, you don’t need to do anything. The new method automatically replaces the PDFLayer method. During the upgrade your API keys are deleted from your site’s database. You’ll see no interruption to the PDF-generation functionality.

Without the additional dependency, we now have nearly full control over the PDF-generation process, resulting in the generated PDF being a 100% faithful copy of what is seen on screen.