Unable to write to destination pdfkit python

Question

Summary

I am trying to use the package pdfkit (version 0.6.1) and wkhtmltopdf (version 0.12.6.0) to convert HTML to PDF.

I can use the script, until I try to convert it to an .exe file using cx_freeze. Then it fails. Using the executable, I get the following error:

Error

Exception in thread Thread-109:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Diego\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\threading.py", line 932, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\Users\Diego\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\threading.py", line 870, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\Diego\Pictures\Zona Python\GuideMath\src\interfaz\VentanaExportar.py", line 132, in __exportarHTMLaPDF
    self.__resultado = self.__ctrl.exportarHTMLaPDF(
  File "C:\Users\Diego\Pictures\Zona Python\GuideMath\src\controlador\Controlador.py", line 142, in exportarHTMLaPDF
    return "E" if pdfkit.from_url(
  File "C:\Users\Diego\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\pdfkit\api.py", line 26, in from_url
    return r.to_pdf(output_path)
  File "C:\Users\Diego\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\pdfkit\pdfkit.py", line 156, in to_pdf
    raise IOError('wkhtmltopdf reported an error:\n' + stderr)
OSError: wkhtmltopdf reported an error:
Loading pages (1/6)
Warning: Javascript alert: Hola
QPainter::begin(): Returned false============================] 100%
Error: Unable to write to destination
Exit with code 1, due to unknown error.

Relevant Code Snippet

pdfConf = pdfkit.configuration(wkhtmltopdf=os.path.join(
            self.__principalPath, "docs/web/PDF/wkhtmltopdf.exe"))

pdfOpti = {
            "window-status": "print",
            "dpi": "90",
            # "quiet": "",
            "page-size": "A4",
            "footer-html": f"{url}/footer.html"
        }
try:
            return "E" if pdfkit.from_url(
                url=f"{url}/document.html",
                output_path=outputPath,
                configuration=pdfConf,
                options=pdfOpti) else "F"
except:
            return "F"

Other

I searched on the internet and I found that the problem might be the destination path. But I am using the complete path: C:\Users\Diego\Desktop\JAA.pdf

Setup File

import sys
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable

build_exe_options = {"packages": ["ctypes", "os", "wx", "json", "threading", "pdfkit"],
    "excludes": ["tkinter"]}

base = None
if sys.platform == "win32":
    base = "Win32GUI"

setup(name="App",
      version="0.1",
      description="",
      options={"build_exe": build_exe_options},
      executables=[Executable("main.py", base=base, icon="app.ico")])

Answer 1

The diagnosis you made is correct (after all, Error: Unable to write to destination is pretty straightforward).

If you can create the output file, but the created EXE file cannot - and we know it couldn't - then this means that either

• the real destination path is not actually there when the EXE runs. You think you're writing to a given path, but somehow the EXE attempts to write elsewhere.
• the EXE has no permissions to create the file.

This might be caused by several reasons. The EXE file, for security reasons, might output in a given directory, so when you ask for "C:\somefile", it actually tries to write in "%TEMP%/C:/somefile". Or might refuse to use a full path.

Or you could need to write the file in Unix syntax ("C:/Users/..." instead of "C:\Users...", because e.g. "\Diego" is translated to "0x0Diego" ("iego" with a carriage return prefixed).

You should therefore insert into the EXE file some code to explore the filesystem the EXE is seeing (which might not be the same one you see!), and/or try to write to a different path, perhaps indeed %TEMP% (where permissions should be sufficient).