Abiword -> PDF

From: Phil Thompson (phil@tarponcreek.com)
Date: Tue Jul 15 2003 - 10:14:35 EDT

  • Next message: Dom Lachowicz: "Re: Abiword -> PDF"

    I'm working on a project to automate form generation for a government agency. We basically have form templates which get populated by data from an SQL database, then converted to PDF for archival purposes. There is a web app which facilitates this process, and the user is encouraged to edit the generated form before converting to PDF.

    Here is a very rough view of how the app works:

    1. Template file selected
    2. Perl script replaces <placeholders> with data
    3. Optional: User edits (client-side) then uploads file
    4. Server converts template file to a PDF

    A WYSIWYG editor seems a natural part of this process--we have evaluated HTML -> PDF solutions and they are not pretty.

    Now here are couple of things which are very appealing about both Abiword and OpenOffice:

    a. free!
    b. cross-platform!
    c. XML default file format, makes #2 "easy"

    And (finally) here is my problem... I need to do #4 XML->PDF on the SERVER side. Now I can install Abiword on the RedHat servers with an RPM, no problem. The problem is using some magic command line (or CPAN module) to automate the conversion to PDF process. Has anyone done this or do you know of an elegant way to handle? I've thought about the "set up a printer, print to postscript, then convert PS to PDF" option and I really don't see it working for this application. The "setup printer" option alone is a huge pain in the rear across our 50+ red hat servers.

    Finally, if you think OpenOffice is a better candidate for making this happen, please let me know. I prefer the lean and mean aspect of AbiWord but would pick anything free (that works well) over a Microsoft or Corel Office solution.

    Please provide any help or advice you can! If I can make this work I will help eliminate the need for Microsoft Office in over 100 offices around the nation. (I also might be able to eliminate the need for Adobe Acrobat Writer if I can get #4 working smoothly.)

    Thanks!
    Phil

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