Generate PDF?

[Bryan VonDeylen]

Since the web does not create the best looking documents for printing, is there a way in CWP to have FileMaker Pro generate a PDF for the user to download and print?

Can a FileMaker Pro Advanced Server on OS X be scripted to Print to PDF and have the document available for downloading to client machines somehow?

[transpower]

Sure, set up one of your printers as a PDF printer. On the Windows side, I use Scansoft PDF Create. There is undoubtedly one for the Mac.

[Bryan VonDeylen]

You will need to explain what you are talking about.

I have my FileMaker Pro Advanced Server on an Apple XServe. OS X can create PDF files easily enough, but how do I get a xsl template to generate a PDF file, and email that PDF file, or have it download to the users desktop when they click a link (such as Generate Report on the web page)?

Do I script it? If so, I can try it, but I haven't tried using scripts in a xsl template yet, so I don't know how this would be done (yet).

[QuinTech]

Hi Bryan. You might think of looking into .fdf files. I don't fully understand them, but they sure look neat.

If i have it correctly, an .fdf file is like an .xml file, and a fill-in .pdf form would take the role of the .xsl. That is, an FDF contains structured data, with tags (though not anything similar to XML, syntactically) that identify which part of the PDF the data should populate. And the PDF file contains tags that identify where certain data should go.

Adobe has some documentation on this; i found it a little tough to work through, and i felt like they were trying to sell their developer package unnecessarily for FDF creation. There is another product i've heard good things about, though i've never used it, that you might also look into: FMP-PDF Toolkit from alQemy Software.

On the other hand, i have a suspicion that if you understand XML and are willing to invest the time, you can probably figure out the FDF structure on your own. Keep in mind that the FDF will call a fill-in PDF from some location when it looks to populate the data (when you double-click an FDF, that is what it does automatically), so you will need the fill-in PDF available. It would probably be most convenient to have it on the web for this purpose.

HTH,

Jerry