[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi
I have always used a product by Synactis called "PDF In-The-Box" (
www.synactis.com/pdf-in-the-box.htm). This is a one-off purchase with royalty free distribution.
I have not tried it from Extend, but it works well from RM/COBOL WOW. RM/COBOL also supported PDFLib, but for the price, this was far easier to use.
The product comes as an activex or dll, so it can be run at the client - removing problems with server OS and produces the report at the client - where you want it for printing.
It has a very easy to use interface and produces excellent looking PDF documents.
The product is very reliable (never had a problem with it) and progressive, with regular updates and new features being introduced.
You can download an eval version for free.
I hope this helps
Cheers
Nigel
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
We build our own tool using C# / VS2008. The program is based on the public domain iTextSharp library. The C# program receives instructions and a text file with the report data from COBOL, than builds the report by calling functions in the iTextSharp library. We started of with ACU making direct calls into .NET but quickly realized that many of our customers can not run the required .NET registrations to make this work (security). We than added a command line utility which is simply called from the COBOL program. That works fine. Once the PDF file is build, we "run" the PDF file which launches the PDF viewer. We also display the PDF inside the application via the webbrowser control.
It is not perfect (multi-step-process) but it does work.
We were unable to make the .NET interfacing work in an ACU 8.2 64bit environment and Microfocus was not able to help us out.
-Peter-
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Thanks guys. I will review both of these. The stand alone activex looks appealing at this stage,
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
We currently generate PDF documents using CutePDF and this appears to work fine for us.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Back onto this :)
CutePDF is good but requires a printer driver installed, same as win2pdf. We are looking for a solution where we can distribute just a file(s) with our install etc.
Does PDF-in-a-box also convert documents etc to a pdf with security e.g. cannot edit, cannot print etc ?
I think converting a document of any type to PDF is really our main focus at this stage with creating our own PDF's to come later.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hello Nigel,
I want to use PDF-in-the-box. Could you send me an example of your source how to use this?
Thanks,
Andre
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi,
In the archived COBOL-Threads you can find some possibilities to produce PDF files.
We actually use a Windows-DLL for generating PDF files from standard COBOL programms.
We use one COBOL programm which allows the functions to opening, closing and writing.
All Programs use this special program for generating PDF-Files. Normaly the program uses a buffer in which all lines for one page are stored. This buffer will be printed into the pdf-file.
Peter Dörrenbächer-Alles
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi Peter,
I have searched the Archived threads and come across a variety of solutions relating to PDFs.
Would I be able to get a sample of your COBOL program which produces a PFD?
Thanks
Geoff Hashman
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi Geoffrey,
please contact me by email via info@kiss-personal.de
Than i can send a sample program to you.
thanks
peter
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
hi,
a demoversion of our DLL to print normal COBOL-Listngs into pdf file will be available at zthe following link:
Demo Create PDF-FIlesThis demo is limited to May, 01 2012.
The demofile includes the following files:
CBLCONFI a sample cblconfi-file
gencrpdf.acu the excutable of the printhandler
testprt.acu a testprogram which creates a pdf-file
GenCrPDF.dll the windows-dll for creating the pdf-files
gencrpdf.cbl the interfacemodule between the application an the windows-dll
testprt.cbl the testprogram
TESTPRT.PDF the generated example pdf-file
Annotations:
- The cobol programs have compiled with acucobol-gt-compiler v9.1.1
- The cobol programs can be compiled with any ccbl32-version greater 6.1
- The dll runs on MS-Windows 2000 an above (not tested with Winodws 8)
Peter
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
In our software all reports can be either sent to a printer, viewed, archived for later reference, or created as an MS Word document. I just added the ability to produce it as an PDF, by outputting it as an MS Word document, then having it "Saved As" a PDF.
The logic to output to MS Word is done with Active X calls, so it was an easy solution to just introduce a new "Save-As" option. (It already had the option to Save As Office 2003 or 2007 formats).
The nice thing about this approach is when the Word Document is opened, I also provide for a Template to be assigned. This means you can define your Headers with assorted text, and logo's etc, and embed a watermark if you wish.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
I was at the Micro Focus developers conference in Dallas last week and several people mentioned being able to generate PDFs using XML extensions, but I can not find any documentation on the subject. Have you heard anything about it?
Thanks,
Steve
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
If you log onto supportline ...
supportline.microfocus.com/productdoc.aspxSelect All Products
Select ACUCOBOL-GT
Select 9.0.1
You see a Collection of Xcentricity examples (attached)
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
If you want to knwo how to do it in Linux.
Put some hltm code in the beginning of the file and some code at the end of file and convert the file to pdf with wkhtmltopdf
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
I would strongly urge you to consider using XML Extensions. Steve has posted the Xcentrisity Examples which contain a small example of using XML Extensions to drive Apache FOP (Formatting Objects). There are many tools in the market for XML publishing, several of which specifically allow you to design documents for FOP.
One of the benefits of using XML publishing techniques is that the COBOL program merely generates the data, and the downstream XML processing decides how the data are rendered. For example, at the Dallas conference, Tony Darden showed that he used the same 'report program' to generate data that could be rendered as PDF, Excel (or Open Office), or HTML. This technique helps you get the user interface (in this case, how reports are delivered) out of the COBOL program.
Another benefit of this approach is that it can leverage open source 'products' such as Apache FOP, or switch to a commercial alternative without having any proprietary dependencies in the COBOL code (Formatting Objects is a W3C recommendation).
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi,Tom;
Thanks for the samples - generating PDF documents using XML is something we're eager to adopt as well, based on Tony Darden's brief discussion during his presentation at the conference.
We're testing with Extend 9.0 - in the envelope.cbl example, the lixmlall.cpy copybook is missing, and the XML INITIALIZE and XML EXPORT FILE statements won't compile - are those extensions in 9.1, or are they part of BIS, or should they work in 9.0?
We're evaluating Stylus Studio for the stylesheets, and I had started by creating XML documents using the _HOST XML configuration option described in the version 8 documentation, then calling FOP to build the PDF from the stylesheet and the XML datafile. That works okay, but I had trouble trying to export the headings for the report as well as the data (because our application is multi-lingual, we'd like to include the headings as part of the XML output instead of having them hard-coded as part of the stylesheet). The method used in envelope.cbl looks much, much simpler to implement - if I can get it working.
Thanks!
Tony
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi Tony,
When you install BIS, then there should be a AcuGT\\sample\\xmlext folder, the copybook you are looking for is in there.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi Tony,
When you install BIS, then there should be a AcuGT\\sample\\xmlext folder, the copybook you are looking for is in there.
Thanks - do we need BIS, or can we create the XML directly from Extend?
Tony
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
You do not need BIS to use the XML extension. The two were added at the same time, so I believe you need to install BIS to see and access the XML extension examples.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi, Tom;
Just getting back to this after a busy few months. Using the sample envelope.cbl that you provided, I found the copybooks and compiled it using 9.1.1 for Windows. Using the command-line
WRUN32 -d -y XMLIF.DLL ENVELOPE
I can run the program, and step through each step. After the XML INITIALIZE, XML-STATUS=0 which appears to be correct.
After the command:
XML EXPORT FILE
envelope-data
"c:\\omics610\\envelope.xml"
"envelope-data".
The XML-STATUS is again 0, which again appears to be correct. However - it does not create the envelope.xml file. (I hard-coded the path in case I just couldn't find the resulting file).
I'm resorted to running the .acu right in the BIN folder where the runtime was installed, to eliminate concerns about path, wrong DLLs, etc.
I must be missing something simple, but after reading through the XML Extensions documentation, I can't figure out what it is.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Tony
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Hi Tony,
This seems odd. Can the vision file system create a line sequential file using the same pathname? (I am trying to eliminate permissions problems, etc.)
Tom
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Did you compile with -Ze
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
That was the problem - I figured it was something simple I was overlooking, thanks.
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Glad that is sorted. Thanks, Steve!
[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 25 November 2011]
Hi there,
Using the Micro Focus eXtend product range, has anyone done anything around generating PDF documents? Ultimately we are looking for a solution that does
NOT require distribution licensing ie. we can run distribute the solution to our clients without an additional license cost.
Is there any inbuilt mechanism within the extend range ?
Is anyone using any third-party controls ?
Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.
Steve and Tom - the XML extensions are so, so easy to use - now faced with the challenge of learning enough XML and XSL transformation to get the reports working well. I'm using Stylus Studio on trial, and was hoping that the GUI interface would be powerful enough to create XSL files for reports, including FO objects like page numbering; creating charts without having to edit the XSL directly, etc.
Maybe my expectations were a little high - is the normal procedure (for reporting) to create the template using a GUI designer, and then have to "tweak" the XSL code to put in objects like page numbering or charts, or should I expect to be able to find a GUI tool that will do all of that for me (ie as close to magic as possible).
I know this is outside your area of expertise, but I'm just looking to get a realistic idea of what the tools can be expected to do, and help estimate the learning curve to move into the XML reporting world.
Thanks
Tony
