Slashdot Mirror
ActivePDF-like Reports w/ Apache?
Martin71a asks: "I have recently been tasked with managing our website. I come from a mainframe and VB background and have a team of 3 people to work with. Our manager is having us switch from IIS to an Apache web server later this year. In the more immediate future, I need a solution to distribute print to our customers through our website. Previously, we had developed our reports using HTML, but we need more professional looking reports with more basic printing functionality, such as paging, built in. We have been testing ActivePDF in which we develop the reports in Crystal then use ActivePDF to send [those reports] to a virtual PDF printer, which allows the user to view them. We like the solution because it doesn't require our customer to download anything, other than a PDF viewer. We've also experimented with Crystal Enterprise, although it was an older version that required either a Java plug-in, or ActiveX download. My concern is that AcitvePDF does not appear to be supported for an Apache server. Does any know of a similar solution that would be appropriate for an Apache server?"
Take a look at Apache FOP, although your starting documents would have to be XML. The pros: buzzword compliant, and the project has a name similar to an old Soundgarden song!!
If Crystal is running the report, then just set up a samba box with printpdf (see this site for some more info.
Works great. It's free. Infinitely configurable.
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
You don't indicate whether the PDF generation needs to be dynamic.
In either case, Ghostscript will produce a PDF for you, from a PS (Postscript) data source. A fairly trivial transformation.
This leaves "printing" to a Postscript printer, which Windows, Unix *and* Mainframe is capable of.
I assume that since you have (somehow) "outgrown" HTML encoding and features, that you probably need somewhat more advanced formatting than most direct PDF generation libraries will (easily) provide.
I also assume that you want to reduce furture maintainance. With these two goals in mind, the PS->PDF transformation is most reasonable, giving you the flexibility to choose how to "print" the PS.
Ratboy.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
I have used about every PDF library for PHP under the sun, so here's my $0.02.
pdflib - SUCKS, the API is a pain in the ass. I liken it to doing your own dental work -- in the dark. You can circumvent this a little using the pc4p wrapper, but it's fickle.
fpdf - It's pretty good, although it doesn't natively support any sane ways of dealing with text in tables - I was trying to use it to generate PDF invoices and quotations. It would barf and break columns when my text should wrap to the next line. The only way around this would be writing custom extensions to the class.
r&os - This is what I really recommend using. Like fpdf, it doesn't require any additional libraries to be installed - everything runs within PHP itself. The documentation is pretty good and I've really enjoyed using it.