print as pdf

Author: None (None)

hello

there many PDF versions and compatibilities. Having the oppportunity to make it handmade is problably more valuable.

I aggree with you it's not easy to make it.

• using a PDF converter
  you only have to create a report afterwards uses logical printers to find the rigth converter you want.
  Difficulties :  multi-user / multi process
  You have to use a specific printer for each reporting and not the default Windows printer.
  That's we are using.

• using XSLFO:  XML=>PDF
  Difficulties : defining XSLFO / mappings
  we are about to achieve...
   
• using PDFlib to insert text into PDF predefined templates.
   

for the futur I'd just prefer a solution which does not alter the data but associates a data extraction with a viewer.
May be OpenXML or something like than.
may be an 'OpenPDF' will be born...

regards

Hi Martin,

looks like a PDF directly out of Uniface may be a bit hard to do.

Basically, it requires a translation table for PDF-sequences.
Examples can be found in the uniface sources (p_postscript)
or check http://www.march-hare.com/products/htmlprint/ for a basic HTML printer conversion.

Another attempt is to create an XML-file with the data and use XSLT to create a PDF document.

If you google for "DocBook" or "DITA", you will find a wide range of framworks and processors
most of them open-source to support you.

Success, Uli

We generate PDFs from a Uniface application for our reporting system

What we do is to generate an XML file and run that through an XSLT transformation* to produce a XHTML file. Then that XHTML file is pumped through a open source application called CSS2XSLFO (http://re.be/css2xslfo/index.xhtml) to produce a PDF. Internally the CSS2XSLFO application turns HTML and CSS into an XSL-FO file that can then be handled by a XSL-FO rendered like FOP, RenderX, XEP etc.

Essentially our reports have come down to the production of an XSLT transformation from XML to HTML that is fairly simple, yet very powerful, and allows our customers to add their own reports in relative ease.

* Personally we use Saxon or Altova, and not the Uniface internal component USYSXSLT because the two former products support XSLT 2.0, which is significantly better.

Another way of creating PDFs can be found here:

www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/FillFormFieldsOfPDFs.aspx

Success, Uli

ITIS (the Netherlands) has a solution using opensource FOP, and the standard XHTML2.0, XSL:FO, XSLT.

A report generates a XML stream (standard code), the XML is translated using SAXON in several steps to XSL:FO, The apache FOP processor translate that result in PDF.
The solution is for sale. Take contact with ITIS (+31 343 455 680)

Regards

Dino Seelig Appl|web Architect ITIS

The wish was not to have to install a PDF writer at every workplace.

Can't we think of a way to install the PDF writer server-side and do the printing there?

Should not be a big problem as a lot of applications do this with physical prints as well.

I imagine that you call a service with some parameters that does the printing for you.
And then you somehow have to present the resulting PDF file to the user on the client again.

Embed pdf in Uniface printing would provides some benefits. We solved this need using LogicalPrinter + PdfCreator +Com. All the process is completly automated trasnparent to the end users that can select pdf printer as any other "uniface print job model", providing option as "show file" "save-as", "attach in email" (bulk emailing too). Of Course implemeting this full-automated task was not so easy: - Pdf-writer must be installed on each client (there is a Server Installation too) - Logical printer Registry Keys are created at run-time - LogPrinter must be defined in ini file - Pdf-writer configuration is dynamically driven via COM during printing process Native statement Print/pdf pros: - Platform indipendence - No client installation needed - Simpler, less code to manage all this Cons: - It's late, all the world has already adopted an alternative solution. - What about advanced pdf features (Encrypt, Password protection...)

it can be a hard project to convert pdf vb.net using directly of the uniface. here is another method you can easily generate a pdf format. check the codes here.,

Yup indeed. Uniface should provide an easy way to generate a document in PDF format which has been established as a document standard. Or we can only processing PDF files using another 3rd party PDF generator and PDF convesion tools for help. Anyhow, we will choose one who will make our processing work much more convenient.