XMLtoPDF

Working through the 'how to get from XML to PDF' puzzle

• Existing solution - preformatted text in HOLD is split on the page break character and added to an iText Document. See PDFServlet in the Colleague Web project. No XML involved.

• Apache FOP to transform XML into PDF. Reportedly slow, looks complicated. Last release appears to have been July 2003.

1. Keep XML in Docbook format
2. Use xmlto under Cygwin to transform into FO
3. Use Ant 'fop' task to transform .fo into .pdf book
4. See: DocBookToPDF

• Use Digester to parse the XML into a Java ProfileView? object, then construct an iText document by calling getXxx to retrieve the text or nested list of other objects.

• Use Digester to parse the XML and create the iText Document directly.

1. Contact reports must be in descending date order, either that has to be handled before the XML is generated, or ??