Re: reading pdf/html from ifs send via cgidev2 -- RPG400-L

I'm not familiar with the Location: header technique, but I'm not sure
what you mean by it being just a link to the document.

A Location: field is an HTTP header field that causes the browser to"redirect" to a different spot. For example you could change your code tolook like this:

C eval OutStr = 'Location: 'C + '/webdirectory/pdfs/mypdffilename.pdf'

C                             + $CrLf + $CrLf
C                   exsr      $APIStdOut

Though, there's a difference... yours opens in a separate window. Thsijust tells the browser to go to a different location, but it stays in thesame window.

It's my assumption that he's creating these pdfs on the fly - based on
selection criteria prompted from a browser.  when the user hits the
submit button, the cgi runs, generates the report and converts it to
pdf.  now the user needs to see it, so my solution automatically opens
a browser window with the pdf file's path and name already embedded.

What happens if two users run the CGI program at once? Won't the PDFfile in the IFS be overwritten by the 2nd user, causing the first one toget a strange response?

Or is a separate IFS file generated for each request? If so, wouldn't youthen need some way to clean up old files? Couldn't a malicious user usethis against you by filling up your hard drive with lots and lots of PDFs,potentially causing your system to crash?

This is why I go back to the same thing each time. If you're going togenerate the document on-the-fly, why write it to the IFS? Just write itdirectly to the browser!

So, the user presses submit, and the next thing he sees is the report
pdf in a new window.  how is that just a link to the pdf?

Because that's all your sending back to the browser. A link to the PDF.Granted, the browser is acting upon that link automatically, not waitingfor user to click on anything, but it's still a link, as opposed toreturning the document itself.

If all you are looking for is just a web inquiry, then writing the
report results in HTML is certainly an option.  But if you want to
print the output, html reports are not printer friendly, pdfs are.

I don't understand why you're bringing this up? Did someone dispute thevalidity of PDF as an option? I certainly didn't.

So, I'm not aware of any way of generating a pdf from an RPG file
without writing a spool file first.  Is that what you're saying?  that
he can write directly from RPG to pdf format?

Why? Does someone come in your office, put a gun to your head, and say"You MUST write the data to the spool, or I'll pull the trigger!". Why doyou feel that it must be written to the spool? Or to the IFS, for thatmatter? Why not write it directly to the browser?

Perhaps a particular software package expects input to come from a spooledfile, and written out to the IFS. If so, that would be one reason why youMUST go to the IFS first.... However, if you're the one writing thesoftware that generates the PDF (for some reason, this was what I wasexpecting) then you can write it anywhere you like, including writing itdirectly to the browser....