Re: Create PDF file with lines on AS/400

Is free inexpensive enough?

I have used an open source project called FOP quite a bit. It is
pretty straight forward once you have an example. You can get
more information from the Apache XML website at:

http://xml.apache.org

There is a slightly outdated iSeries example on the iSeries-toolkit
web page at: http://www.iseries-toolkit.org. Go to the Cocoon example,

which shows how to produce a simple invoice with grid lines etc. That
example is based on FOP .15 and .17. The current version is more
capable. The samples that come with FOP contain several examples
that show how to define grid lines. You are in luck if metric
measurements
fit your needs, otherwise, you will have to convert the examples to
inches
or points. You can also use the width of M/height of X.

FOP is very powerful and is not the fastest solution for longer
reports.
The reason is that the XML source document is translated to an
FO document that is then fed to FOP.  The FO document can get
quite large. It helps to use a SAX parser and named attributes in your

XSL document that transforms the source to the FO document.

For a one page invoice it builds in about 2 seconds on a small 270.
A ten page invoice takes about a minute, and a 60 page invoice takes
about 15 minutes. Cocoon helps with this by precompiling and caching
stylesheets, but it would likely be overkill in your situation.

David Morris

>>> StoneJ@GourmetAward.com 05/07/02 01:26PM >>>
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I am attempting to create a price list with the typical item#,
description,
price, etc.

I want to place horizontal and vertical grid lines on it to make it
easier
to read.

The file will be created in RPG or COBOL, output to a physical file or
spool
file.

The end result must be a PDF file, which will be emailed to a printer.
The
PDF file must contain the horizontal and verticle grid lines.

Anyone have a method to do this?

Inexpensively?

I know we can purchase an expensive forms package.  Any cheaper
method?

Thanks!!