NAME PDFREP - create PDF Report files This module is used to create a basic data generated PDF file it's main Purpose is to be generic and usable by all perl scripts in an easy manner It does create all the indexes, but not the thumbnails. PNG and JPEG Images are also allowed. DEVELOPMENT STARTED 26th June 2000 COMPLETED 28th June 2001 VERSION 1.00 WRITTEN BY Trevor Ward Copyright (c) 2001 Trevor Ward. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself MODIFICATION INDEX The version number to be incremented by .1 for each modification Date Version By Comments 28/06/2001 1.00 TRW Initial Version INSTALLATION REQUIRED. PERL 5.006 MODULES GD CHART (for test system). CGI (for test system). To install manually, cd to the directory containing the unpacked distribution and do one of the following: a. Create a makefile by running Makefile.PL using the perl program into whose library you want to install and then run make three times: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install b. To install into a private library, for example your home directory: perl Makefile.PL INSTALLSITELIB=$HOME/lib INSTALLMAN3DIR=$HOME/man make make test make pure_install EXAMPLES Rather than go into how the Module works in detail here. Within the zipped file is a complete test suite. pdftest.htm is the control HTML code. pdftest.cgi is run by pdftest.htm. pdftest.pm This contains the complete test code. Each line undertaken is documented. OVERVIEW. A brief usage of PDFREP. use PDFREP; options: This sets up the PDF REP Module. $pdfrep = PDFREP->new(); This is the first call which generates the pdf file. Hopefully the scalars explain what they are for. ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->heading($filenam, $filedir, $title, $author); This sets a font to be used. (F1 is the internal reference for the font). ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->fontset('F1','Helvetica'); To start writing the data. This is done by calling the Pagedata section of PDFREP. This section has various parameters 1 The type of data passed np = new page nl = new line im = new image The other parameters passed are 2 = The column offset . This is the amount of characters from the left hand column of the line. 3 = The font size to be used with the font set later. It is the text point size standard is 12 4 = The name of the font you want to use as previously set 5 = The size of the font on the next data line to allow for correct data throws. 6 = Italic 0 = No 1 = yes > 1 get some weird results. 7 = Red colour 8 = Green colour 9 = Blue colour 0 0 0 = black 1 1 1 = white 10 = The data. This is the textual data you require. If image 10 contains the name of the image width and height ie. I2 300 60 For a new page line there are two extra parameters required page size and orientation. The document must have the same all the way through 11 = Page Size LE = letter A4 = A4 12 = Page Orientation PO = Portrait LA = Landscape Leaving these blank defaults to Letter Portrait ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->pagedata('np','0','12','F2','12','0','0','0','0','This is the first bit of text','A4','PO'); ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->pagedata('nl','0','12','F1','12','0','0','0','0','This is the second bit of text'); To include an image into the PDF file. It uses the physical file on disc and can then be used at any point on any page. ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->include_image('I1','test1.png','600','350', 'png', '../'); This is the im option for displaying page data ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->pagedata('im','0','12','F1','12','0','0','0','0','I1 600 350'); OK so are all the data lines and pages written now. Hope so because it's time to write the PDF file. This might take a minute because it's playing with reading the temporary file and outputting this to the PDF File, 1 = Page size LE = Letter and A4 = A4 defaults to letter 2 = Page orientation PO = Portrait and LA = Landscape ($status, $message) = $pdfrep->writepdf('A4','PO'); The module always returns the status and a message. so you can just check the status to see if an error occured. Well thats it enjoy the module and I hope it is useful. Please if you find any bugs or wish for any enhancements let me know and I will do my best to accomodate them.