RE: [xsl] FOP - what, where, when, how?

Subject: RE: [xsl] FOP - what, where, when, how?
From: "Peter Drivas" <peter.drivas@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:44:29 -0500
On March 22nd, 2002, Alastair Growcott wrote:

>>I've heard and seen suggestions that PDF is an ASCII format, although
>>when I open PDF files they seem to have a lot of encoded binary
>>information. I also know that Windows opens .xml files in IE and that IE
>>can display (or be told to display) files using Adobe Acrobat, and that
>>XML files can specify an XSL file to use for display.
>>
>>Is PDF an ASCII format, and if so can anyone point me at a description
>>of it?
>>
>>Rather than use FOP, would it be workable to have the XML file specify
>>an XSL file to convert it to an XML file using XSL-FO, that in turn
>>specifies an XSL file that converts it to a PDF file, and somewhere
>>along the way have a line that tells IE to view it with Adobe Acrobat? I
>>appreciate that this would be a lot of work, but very useful.
>>Alternatively, for just my application, would it be workable to have an
>>XSL file that converts my XML format files to PDF directly? I suspect
>>that since there is no sign of anyone having done this that the answer
>>is no, but figured it was worth asking.
>>
>>Alastair.

Alastair,

Take a look at:

http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/acrosdk/docs/PDFRef.pdf

It is, as best I can tell, a current reference that describes the structure
of
a PDF document. A PDF file is an ASCII file, but the contents can be encoded
and
encrypted, which may account for why it appears as it does when you open it.

That being said, I can't see any reason why you would want to attempt to
create
XSLT that will convert XML to XSL FO to PDF (or directly from XML to PDF for
that matter).
It seems like a lot of work for not much benefit over what already
exists. There are three renderers that I know of (FOP, XEP, and Antenna
House) that
have implemented a reasonable subset of the XSL FO specification and do a
nice job of
rendering PDF. FOP is popular and it's free. I've used XEP and been very
happy with it.
I would not let the fact that both require Java put you off. You only need
to
download and install the Java runtime (it does run on NT) and set your paths
correctly.
The installation instructions are pretty good and I had no problem. You
don't need
to know Java; it's simply a platform for the renderer to run on. If that's
still too
intimidating, the Antenna House product is more "Windows-friendly" and can
run as a COM
component. You would have to pay a licensing fee for it.

I have written applications that convert xml to PDF via the renderers and
while not
the fastest application, it is fine for our use. I'm not sure how big your
documents
are, but if they aren't much bigger that 10 to 15 pages and you don't embed
a lot of fonts,
the PDF can be created pretty quickly.

Peter



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