Re: Dynamic PDF Document Generation

From: Keith James (kdj_at_deskpro138.internal.sanger.ac.uk)
Date: 07/16/04 

Date: 16 Jul 2004 14:03:31 +0100

>>>>> "Niall" == Niall <niall.murphy@gmail.com> writes:

    Niall> Hi all, I'm looking for some advice on Dynamic PDF Document
    Niall> Generation from java/ j2ee web apps.

    Niall> What I'd like to do is take data from a form or database
    Niall> (perhaps in XML format) and include it in a PDF document
    Niall> which will be returned to the user.

    Niall> I've come accross a number of tools, but am having trouble
    Niall> deciding between them. Eg.

    Niall> -iText

    Niall> -Apache FOP

    Niall> -AurigaDoc (uses FOP)

Can't comment on the above (although I am looking at iText to render
EAN13 barcodes into reports).

    Niall> -DocBook

Much as I like DocBook, I've found it unpleasant to configure the
output because I have little experience in hacking XSL or DSSSL
stylesheets. If you want to merge from a ResultSet then you may end up
rolling a lot of your own code. At least, I'm not aware of a package
which does this.

    Niall> -Some other XML - XSLT method ?

I've recently been playing with JasperReports
(http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net) and have been impressed so
far. The abstraction of input datasources is good, so you can merge
from a whole variety of sources, including JDBC. The XML report
definitions are pretty verbose, but there are free tools to help
(and Emacs + PSGML mode made it bearable for me).

Can't comment of efficiency/speed relative to others, but worth adding
to the list. 

-- 
- Keith James <kdj@sanger.ac.uk> Microarray Facility, Team 65 -
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK -
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