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

[Steve Whitlatch <swhitlat@getnet.net>]

> Now, onwards to my query. Is it possible with this simple model to
> transform my document to PDF?

Transforming DocBook XML files to PDF is something people do frequently. The 
best place to start learning is probably Bob Stayton's book:
http://www.sagehill.net/book-description.html

There is also a website that performs a task similar (same?) as what you 
describe, although I don't know if it uses PHP:
http://www.goshaky.com/docbook-online-tool/

I believe the source code for that process is downloadable from the site. 

> 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?

Yes, if you already know the PHP and necessary for the web coding, you are 
almost done. The XSL used to transform DocBook XML into PDF is already part 
of the DocBook XSL distribution. However, the transformation is not directly 
to PDF. The transformation is to an XSL-FO file, and then you must use an FO 
processor to transform the XSL-FO file into PostScript or PDF. For that, 
there is the free prodcut, FOP, from the Apache website, or XEP 
(commercial) . . . and some others.

Before you integrate the DocBookXML-to-PDF process into your web app, you 
probably want to first get it working on its own, outside the web app. 

For help learning to customize the PDF output (learning to create DocBook XSL 
customization layers), you can try DocBook XSL Configurator:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/db-xsl-cfg 

Good luck,

Steve Whitlatch