Ubuntu Manpage: PDF::FromHTML::Template

Provided by: libpdf-fromhtml-perl_0.34-1_all

NAME

       PDF::FromHTML::Template - PDF::FromHTML::Template

SYNOPSIS

         use PDF::FromHTML::Template;

         my $pdf = PDF::FromHTML::Template->new({
            file => 'some_template.xml',
         });

         $pdf->param(%my_params);

         print "Content/type: application/pdf\n\n", $pdf->get_buffer;

         $pdf->write_file('some_file.pdf');

DESCRIPTION

       NOTE: This is a fork of PDF::Template 0.30, originally released by Rob Kinyon, but (as of September 11,
       2006) currently not available on CPAN.  Use of this module outside PDF::FromHTML is not advised.

       PDF::FromHTML::Template is a PDF layout system that uses the same data structures as HTML::Template.

OVERVIEW

       PDF::FromHTML::Template is a PDF layout system that uses the same data structures as HTML::Template.
       Unlike HTML::Template, this is a full layout system. This means you will have to describe where each item
       will be on the page. (This is in contrast to HTML::Template, which adds on to HTML::Templateut is
       determined by the HTML, not HTML::Template.)

       PDF::FromHTML::Template uses an XML document as the template. However, the XML is not completely
       compliant. The only difference (that I'm aware of) is that any node can have any parameter. (This
       prevents the creation of a DTD.) The reason for this is to allow scoping by parents for parameters used
       by children. (More on this later.)

       Each node in the document corresponds to an object, with each parameter mapping (mostly) 1 to 1 to an
       object attribute. Parent-child relationships are strictly preserved. Each parent provides a scope
       (similar to variable scope) to its children. (This is why any node can have any parameter.) If a child
       needs the value of a parameter and it doesn't have that value as an attribute, it will ask its parent for
       the value. If the parent doesn't have it, it will ask its parent, and so on.

METHODS

• new( [$opts] )

This will create a new instance of PDF::FromHTML::Template. $opts is an optional hashref that can
contain the following parameters:

• file

This is either the name of the file or the filehandle of the open file. If it is present, parse()
will be called upon that filename/filehandle. Otherwise, after new() is called, you will have to
call parse() yourself.

filename is a synonym for file.

• openaction

This is the action that the PDF reader will take when it opens this file. The valid values are:

• fitbox

• fitheight

• fitpage (default)

• fitwidth

• retain

• openmode

This is the mode that the PDF reader will use when it opens this file. The valid values are:

• bookmarks

• fullscreen

• none (default)

• thumbnails

• info

This is a hashref of information that you wish to have the PDF retain as metadata. If this is not
present, both Author and Creator will be set to PDF::FromHTML::Template.

The following keys are not supported:

• CreationDate

• Producer

• ModDate

• Trapped

• pdf_encoding

This is the encoding that the template is in. It defaults to the host encoding. This is different
from the encoding parameter for the pdftemplate tag.

• parse( $file )

This will parse the XML template into the appropriate datastructure(s) needed for
PDF::FromHTML::Template to function.

• parse_xml( $file )

This is a deprecated synonym for parse().

• "param( key =" value, [ key => value, ... ] )>

This will set the parameters that PDF::FromHTML::Template will use to merge the template with. This
method is identical to the HTML::Template or Template Toolkit method of the same name.

• write_file( $filename )

This will write the rendered PDF to the file specified in $filename.

• get_buffer()

This will return the rendered PDF stringified in a form appropriate for returning over an HTTP
connection.

• output()

This is a synonym for get_buffer() provided for HTML::Template compatibility.

• register( ... )

XXX

USAGE

       There are a few consistency rules that that every PDF::FromHTML::Template has to follow:

       1 The root node is called PDFTEMPLATE
       2 There must be at least one PAGEDEF (which does not have to be a direct child of the PDFTEMPLATE node)
       3 All rendering elements (include FONT tags) must be within a PAGEDEF node
       4 There must be a FONT tag as an ancestor of every TEXTBOX node
       5 Within a PAGEDEF, there can only be one HEADER node and one FOOTER node

       For more information about each node, please see the POD for that class.

WWW CAVEATS

       When taking an HTML page and adding a PDF option, there are a few differences to take into  account.  The
       primary  one is the idea of pagebreaks. HTML is displayed as a single page, with scrolling. Paper doesn't
       scroll, so when there should be a new page  is  something  PDF::FromHTML::Template  works  very  hard  at
       determining. It will take into account any header and footer information you've provided, as well as page
       sizes.

       The  second  is  that  you  have  to  determine how wide you want your text to be. One of the most common
       activities is to take a tabular report and covert it to a PDF. In HTML, the browser  handles  text  width
       for you. Right now, there isn't a TABLE tag (though work is being done on it). So, you have to layout out
       your  TEXTBOX  nodes  by hand. (See the EXAMPLES for some ideas on this.) That said, it really isn't that
       hard. TR/TH tags convert to ROW tags  easily,  and  TD  tags  are  basically  TEXTBOX  tags.  Add  a  few
       width="20%" (or whatever) and you're fine.

BUGS

       None, that I'm aware of.

LIMITATIONS

       Currently,   the   only   PDF   renderer   PDF::FromHTML::Template   supports  is  PDFlib  (available  at
       www.pdflib.com). The next release of PDF::FromHTML::Template will also  support  PDF::API2.   Unless  you
       need  Unicode  support, PDFlib Lite is sufficient (and free). Please see <http://www.pdflib.com> for more
       details.

       I am aware that PDFlib will not compile  under  AIX  or  Cygwin.  These  are  problems  that  PDFlib  has
       acknowledged to me.

AUTHOR/MAINTAINER

       Originally written by Dave Ferrance (dave@ferrance.org)

       Taken over after v0.05 by Rob Kinyon (rob.kinyon@iinteractive.com)

CONTRIBUTORS

       Patches and ideas provided by:

       •   Audrey Tang

           Provided the impetus to move to PDF::Writer (which she also wrote).

       •   Michael Kiwala

           Aided in the design and testing of the transition from Dave Ferrance's version.

       •   Nathan Byrd

           Provided nearly all the initial doublebyte expertise.

       Additionally, there is a mailing list at <http://groups.google.com/group/PDFTemplate>

COPYRIGHT

       This  program  is  free  software;  you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself.