Re: [xsl] PDF Conversion

[Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>]

Vasu,

Unfortunately in this forum we're not able to tell you in detail "how it's 
done" -- the answer is "it depends". But we can help you get started.

XSL has two different pieces you'll need. XSLFO (formatting objects) is an 
XML language that you can use to specify how a document should be printed 
or displayed. XSLT is a language used to tell a piece of software (an XSLT 
"transformation engine") how it should convert from one form of XML into 
another. So basically the process is one of using XSLT (you can think of it 
as a programming language, but it's actually closer to a "processing 
specification" language) to generate XSLFO from your source XML. Then 
XSLFO, in your case, would be converted into PDF. This last step is done 
with another piece of software, a "Formatter". (The fo.jar that you've 
gotten is probably meant for this.)

VasuXML + XSLT => XSLT engine => XSLFO => XSLFO formatter => PDF

Assuming your source XML is all ready, the only thing you actually have to 
write is the XSLT that is applied to your source to generate the XSLFO: 
processors take care of the rest.

So your first step is to master XSLT.

There are any number of books available that go into the details. For your 
purposes, I'd recommend Neil Bradley's "XSL Companion": it's very good on 
the concepts and on how the pieces fit together, without getting too deep 
for the beginner. It can be used to solve the first 80% of the problems 
you'll encounter. After you've mastered the basics, you can move on to 
something deeper. (Others may have their own favorite starter books, which 
I hope they'll recommend.)

I hope that helps,
Wendell

At 01:22 PM 2/12/02, you wrote:
>Dear elite members of this club,
>I have a problem . Actually rather than defining this as a problem , I 
>want to define this as something about which i havent got any clue.
>Here it goes,
>I have an xml file and i am asked to convert the xml to PDF document using 
>XSL conversion ..
>
>I have searched the web and found that it done through xsl:fo.. but havent 
>got a clue how to go further..
>i also have all the fo.jar files.
>can any one of you please help me working my problem out.
>I shall be highly thankful..


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
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