Re: [docbook-apps] Converting DocBook to PDF using PHP

[Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>]

XSLT cannot generate PDF output directly.  It can generate XSL:FO (an 
XML format), which can then be transformed into PDF (a binary format) by 
an XSL:FO processor such as FOP (Java app).  If it really must be 
on-the-fly, then I'd suggest generating the XSLFO on the fly, saving 
that to a file via PHP, then running the FOP command line tool via PHP's 
local-shell exec methods (there are 2 or 3 I believe) to generate a PDF 
file, which you then read off the disk and return via PHP.  I've not 
done binary files with PHP myself, I'm afraid, so I can't help you on 
the syntax there.  It will probably also be painfully slow this way.

Are you sure you can't do off line scheduled generation?

Noah Slater wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am still trying to grok DocBook, but I am having a little trouble
> figuring out one thing.
> 
> I have a file called docbook.xml and another file called docbook.xsl
> which I am using to generate HTML output.
> 
> I am generating the HTML using PHP's XSL extension. Please do not
> think this post is about PHP, because it's not - I have no problem
> with PHP.
> 
> The way the extension works is quite simple. It takes a XML file (in
> this case, a DocBook file) and applies a XSLT file to get some output.
> It's as simple as that.
> 
> Now, onwards to my query. Is it possible with this simple model to
> transform my document to PDF?
> 
> I have looked for hours on the web at many sites, but they all seem to
> focus on command line tools (such as tex and LaTeX etc) for the
> transformations. I do not want to do this, as the target application
> of all this is a simple website that can offer PDF files generated on
> the fly from DocBook files.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas or pointers? Is it simply a matter of
> getting the right XSL file that can do this for me? If so, are there
> any free (as in speech) one's on the web?
> 
> Thanks guys, your help is greatly appreciated!
> 
> Noah

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Larry Garfield			AIM: LOLG42
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