Re: Next assignment - Reports

Just curious, but what would be the reason to convert HTML to PDF?

The one big benefit to PDF's are that they have ALL their resources
inclusive to the file, whereas HTML cannot embed images.

Since you're more adept than I am at Java, how about you considering a port

to IBM i?

I was hoping you were going to ask that :-) Now I just have to find the
time to do it. I will be out of town till Tuesday but maybe the wife will
let me work a little on our trip :-)

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 12:28 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Brad,

I appreciate you post; including the humor ;-)

I'm a big fan of HTML for page layout, and agree that HTML works for
reports, too. I've written complex HTML layouts with absolute
positioning that look good on the screen as well as paper. But some
users prefer PDF to prevent content modifications, and PDF printing
works so well; no need to instruct users how to set
header-footer-margin options in the File-Print dialog, for example.

Nathan.



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On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Bradley V. Stone wrote:

Nathan,

Just curious, but what would be the reason to convert HTML to PDF?
You can
print both. Yes, PDF is popular, but HTML can be used to view online
and if
done right, will print nice as well.

I've been telling customers for years that creating reports in HTML
instead
of spooled files isn't a bad idea. But spooled files still do have
their
place. That's what CGIDEV2 and my eRPG SDK and others are all
about...
creating dynamic reports, going paperless, etc.

How many times do users run a report, print it out, just to view a
small
piece? when it's online you can save paper. :)

The biggest issue with this is rewriting apps to do HTML instead of
spooled
files.

Now, converting HTML to a spooled file may be the way to go. :) then
write
all your reports in HTML, then when you want to print it convert the
HTML to
a spooled file.

Just thinking out loud.. lol.

Bradley V. Stone
BVSTools - www.bvstools.com
eRPG SDK - www.erpgsdk.com

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