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XML & Web services: PDF generation

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  1. PDF generation (3 messages)

    • Posted by: Prasanna K
    • Posted on: January 05 2006 06:22 EST
    I have a requirement of generating PDF files. I have the report template in RTF format and data in XML format. I am planing to use Apache FOP API. For this I need a XSL and a XML file. Is there any Java API that will convert RTF to XSL files? Is there any other way of achieving the above requirement?

    Thanks,
    Prasanna Kumar
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    Threaded Messages (3)

  2. PDF generation[ Go to top ]

    We use Adobe Form Server for generating PDFs, but it is an expensive product. iText is another tool (opensource project from source forge) that helps in PDF generation, though you will end up coding the document layouts in your program. I remember trying out FOP too, the performance was too bad, and we had to reject it, also, it did not have a stable release the last time i looked it up. I suggest iText as a better tool for the job, but if you can spend some $$ Adobe Form Server is my choice.
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  3. PDF generation[ Go to top ]

    Windward Reports may do what you're looking for. It can handle RTF as the template, XML as the data and PDF as the output. It's not free, though, so if you're using Apache FOP to save money you will have to decide whether you're willing to pay for Windward (not sure how much it is - check their website).

    As for converting RTF to XSL, you're out of luck. That's a bit like asking if anyone has a tool to convert Esperanto into C++.
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  4. docbook and TeX[ Go to top ]

    One way could be to go via docbook and TeX to create PDF-files. docbook is an xml-dtd which has been established for documenting GNU- and Linux-Software. These XML-files can be converted to TeX and that can easily be used to create pdf or ps-files, btw. with a very sophisticated layout engine. Assuming you are running your server under Linux, you probably have it on your disk or you can install it easily from your distribution.
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