Build a React PDF Invoice Generator App with refine & Strapi
Tags: strapi, react, refine
Published: 2023-04-14 14:58:08

Last week, the refine ft Strapi event offered developers an exciting opportunity to learn about building applications with two powerful technologies. Refine and Strapi, when combined, offer an incredible array of possibilities for building applications. During the week, Refine released a series of five articles detailing how to create a React PDF Invoice Generator application using these tools alongside [Ant Design](https://ant.design/).

If you missed out or are unfamiliar with these technologies, this blog post offers a quick overview of refine and Strapi. And all the articles released during the event so you can quickly get up to speed and start building your invoice generator application. 

## What is refine? 
[refine](https://refine.dev/) is a React-based framework that enables CRUD web applications development and provides solutions for critical components of projects, including authentication, access control, routing, networking, state management, and i18n.

With its built-in connectors for various back-end services like Strapi, REST API, GraphQL, and more, refine enables you to generate CRUD operations with ease. It provides SSR support with Next.js or Remix. 

You can easily get started by following the [quick start guide](https://refine.dev/docs/getting-started/quickstart/) using the refine CLI command with a built-in template. 

Run the following command:
```bash
npm create refine-app@latest my-project
```

The installation process will guide you through project template selection, naming, back-end service and UI framework selection, and other configuration settings.

## What is Strapi?
Strapi is a headless content management system (CMS) that allows developers to choose their favorite tools and frameworks and allows editors to manage and distribute their content using their application's admin panel. 

With Strapi's customizable admin panel and API, developers can easily adapt the CMS to meet their specific use cases using the plugin system, which offers various plugins available through the [Strapi Market](https://market.strapi.io/). Additionally, developers can opt to self-host their Strapi application to maintain complete control of their data, or they can use [Strapi Cloud](https://strapi.io/cloud) for a quick and easy deployment process.

Like refine, getting started with Strapi is straightforward. Simply run the following command:
```bash
yarn create strapi-app my-project --quickstart
```

And follow the installation instructions while verifying that you meet all the necessary prerequisites to start your project.

## Build a React PDF Invoice Generator App with refine & Strapi
There are many use cases where you might need an invoice generator application, including small business owners, entrepreneurs, service providers, ecommerce store owners, freelancers, and more. This series of tutorials takes you through the steps you need to follow to build the application: 
1. [The architecture of the frameworks used to build the application](https://refine.dev/blog/refine-react-invoice-generator-1/): Overview of refine and Strapi.
2. [Setting Up the Invoicer App with Strapi and refine](https://refine.dev/blog/refine-react-invoice-generator-2/): Setting up the Invoicer app using refine.new by choosing Ant Design as a UI framework and Strapi as a dataprovider. 
3. [Adding CRUD Actions & Views](https://refine.dev/blog/refine-react-invoice-generator-3/): Implement CRUD operations for companies, clients, and contacts resources. And implement user authentication using Strapi.
4. [Creating Mission and Invoices Pages](https://refine.dev/blog/refine-react-invoice-generator-4/): Add more CRUD views to the PDF Invoice Generator. 
5. [Adding PDF Renderer](https://refine.dev/blog/refine-react-invoice-generator-5/): Add a pdf renderer to display your invoices on a PDF screen.

## Conclusion 
refine and Strapi are two powerful technologies for building powerful and customizable applications. This week we learned how to build a React PDF Invoice Generator application using these technologies with Ant Design. 

If you are unfamiliar with these technologies and would like to continue learning, here are some useful resources to continue your learning journey: 
* [React Admin Panel Tutorial with Chakra UI and Strapi](https://refine.dev/blog/react-admin-tutorial/)
* [How to Build a React Admin Panel with Mantine and Strapi](https://refine.dev/blog/react-admin-panel/)
* [Strapi Internals: Customizing the Backend ](https://strapi.io/blog/strapi-internals-customizing-the-backend-part-1-models-controllers-and-routes)

Join the [Strapi](https://discord.com/invite/strapi) Community and the [refine](https://discord.com/invite/refine) Community on Discord and continue discussing this topic further or connect with more people.