comment on

I've been using it as well and while it has really saved us tons in development time it doesn't have or do everything we need.

Anyone interested in PDF document dispatch might also wish to check out HTMLDOC It can be called in a Perl script using system. I use a homegrown templating routine to generate an RG authorization complete with tabular layout, store it temporaily as HTML from a MySQL table, and then pass the temp file name to HTMLDOC and poof! instant PDF file ready for faxing. It's even easier than PDFLib. Here's a fragment from an actual app


our $template;
&template_fun;
$template =~ s/\#([^\#])\#/${$1}/ge;
# see update note
my $tmstamp = localtime;
$tmstamp =~s/ |:|-/_/g;

my $tmpfile = "D:\\pdfs\\" .  $tmstamp . ".html";
open (HTMLFILE, ">$tmpfile") || die "cannot do it: $!";
print HTMLFILE "$template";
close(HTMLFILE);

## here's where we make the actual system call
chdir "D:\\HTMLDOC\\";
system("htmldoc -t pdf --webpage -f D:\\pdfs\\" . $RGA_num . ".pdf $tm
+pfile");
unlink $tmpfile;


sub template_fun(){
$template = '<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
    <TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<center>Returned Goods Authorization</center>
<TABLE border=0 width=595>
<TR>
    <TD width=85 valign=top>
    <P>
        <IMG SRC="D:\inetpub\wwwroot\images\D2.jpg" ALIGN=left><BR cle
+ar=all>
        
    </TD>
    <TD width=450 valign=top><H2>#companyName#<BR>
        <font size=-2>#ourphone#      #ourfax#</font></H2>
    </TD>
</TR>
<TR>    
    <TD width=85>&nbsp;</TD>
    <TD width=450>
    <TABLE BORDER=0 width=350>
    <TR>
        <TD valign=top>To: #attn#<BR>
        Company: #cust_name#<BR>
        Phone: #phone#<BR>
        #dmethod#:
         #fax#
        </TD>
    
        <TD valign=top>From: #tech#<BR>
        Fax back: #our_fax#<BR>
        Reason for return: #code#<BR>
        Date: #date#<BR>
        Order number: #ord_num#
        </TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE><P>
    <font size=+1>RGA number: #RGA_num#</font> <font size=2>(Write thi
+s number on the outside of your package)</font>
    
    #raddress#
    </TD>
</TR>    

</TABLE>

</BODY>
</HTML>';
}
[download]

# Update: just read Death to Dot Star!

In reply to Re: Re: XML2PDF by earthboundmisfit
in thread XML2PDF by holygrail

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