Subject: Re: [xsl] Help getting started with XSL PDF generation From: Jon Gorman <jonathan.gorman@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:41:30 -0500 |
>What does >> That's unlikely, because a properly configured server would send >> application/pdf as content type for "real" PDF. :-) >That mean exactly? I believe the comment was made one workaround could be that you could have the client associate "text/pdf" with a fo engine and then have your server have the in the content header it was were returning a "text/pdf" when your server was returning xsl-fo documents. The next poster was made the point that as soon as the user hit a properly configured server, it would lead to an error since the xsl-fo engine would be expect a fo (xml) document but would be receiving a pdf document. This was corrected by J.Pietschmann, who said that the client should only associate actual pdf files with "application/pdf". I'd be wary about using this workaround anyhow. Also, it makes more sense to me to return something like "text/fo" if you were really going that route anyhow. I'd double check those standards before doing so of course ;). > I looked at a few PDF docs I have on my local system, they look very > "binary" Ummm, guessing what a PDF looks like inside from looking at random pdfs is rather difficult. Why not just look at the specs? http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/pdf/index_reference.html I think there's some more confusion here. Most people start out with an XML source, transform it to XSL-Fo, and then use a FO engine/translator/processor to transform that into PDF. that is: XML -> XSL-FO -> PDF Where the first -> could be transformed via XSLT, SAX, or some other method. The second -> is done by something like FOP or XEP. It was my impression that you were interested in going directly from XML to the PDF. It might be possible to do this for a simple case, although if I recall correctly for pdf you'll need to keep track of byte placement, which might be possible with use of extensions in XSLT (but I kinda doubt it). But if your source is going to be in XSL-FO, this would require you to essentially write your own XSL-FO engine in XSLT. Even if It is possible you essentially end up with the same steps. Notice that FOP and XEP are actually just transforming fo files into another document format. It's entirely feasible they could do other outputs besides pdf (I know some have some basic RTF support). It's a bit like a gif could probably be converted to a png or a jpeg. > 1) can I get started without the fo engine? like I said, it might be possible, but it's very hard. The larger the range of your possible source xml files the less I'd recommend even considering a direct pdf generation from XML source. And I really wouldn't recommend very much in any case. > 2) will the xsl:fo namespace work without the engine (local) - so, the > namespace is valid and the transformations take place accordingly Errr. No clue what you mean by this. If you create a fo document, it will be a valid fo document. But there are no magic transformations in XSLT that are associated with fo. It's just like any other xml format. You need an engine to convert fo to PDF, Word etc. > 3) does someone have a simple "hello world" -- or, depending on your > up bringing -- a "foo bar" sample? A simple direct to pdf example? Never seen one, not entirely sure it's possible. I have toyed around with the notion, but unless i feel like getting far better acquainted with the pdf standard I probably won't. In fact, one of the only real good reason I could think of such a project would be to get more familiar with the PDF format. The other possible would be seeking some sort of universal client-side rendering, but the performance penalties would most likely be extreme. well, hopefully my long email hasn't caused any more confusion. Jon Gorman
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