INT013 - Create PDF Output using PDFDocumentService
Objectives
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To create an application which produces a PDF document containing employee details and skills.
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To demonstrate how to use the PDFDocumentService.
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To understand how to define the PDF document layout, by defining an XML template document.
To achieve the objectives you will complete the following:
Step 1. Plan the PDF Page Content
Step 2. Create the PDF XML Template
Step 3. Create RDMLX Function iiiFN14 to Produce a Single Page PDF
Step 4. Create Function iiiFN15 - Create PDF Output for Employees
Step 5. Create Form iiiFRM08 – Test PDF Output for Employees
Concepts
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The PDFDocumentService enables complex and dynamic PDF output to be produced.
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The format of the output PDF document is defined by an XML template document. This XML template includes <content></content> tags which are used to define the content of the various areas of a page. This structure is completely flexible, but will typically include content areas such as header, details, lists and footer.
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Your RDML/RDMLX program creates a PDF document using the XML template and "adds content" into the content areas defined by the XML template
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Content can be added in any sequence
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The page area is defined as a grid. A4 landscape for example, is defined as having an area of 590 x 840 pts.
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The bottom left hand position is 0,0
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All output to the page is defined as having a position on an X1, Y1 axis. These values define the top left hand corner for this element. Y is the vertical axis.
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In the LANSA Integrator Guide, refer to XML Content in the PDFDocumentService for details of all the elements which can be defined in the XML template.
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The PDFDocumentService includes a sample XML template and the RDML function to output a PDF document using it.
Before You Begin
If you plan to run this exercise on your IBM i server:
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Create the following folder, if it does not already exist:
/LANSA_<pgmlib>/jsm/instance/training
Where <pgmlib> is your LANSA program library, e.g. dcxpgmlib.
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Copy these files to the . . /training folder
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lanlogo.gif
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ph0070.tif
These files are included in a zip file which can be download from: