PDF Created With XSLT
Originally XSLT specifically was designed to support a 2-step process of
Transformation: In the first step an XML document transforms into another XML document containing information about how to display the document: what font to use, the size of a page, etc. This markup is called
Formatting Objects. Note that the resulting XML document not only contains formatting information, but is also stores all of the document's data within itself.Formatting: Some software (called “FO-Processor”) transforms the result of the first step (transformation) into the intended output format. For example, Apache™ FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an output independent formatter, which can generate PDF.
OpenEndpoints uses Apache™ FOP to generate PDF.
The data-source transformer refers to a XSLT that creates XSL-FO (=an xml containing content + formatting options).
<transformer data-source="[data-source]">
<xslt-file name="[xslt-which-creates-xsl-fo]"/>
<convert-output-xsl-fo-to-pdf/>
</transformer>In the example above the 2-step process is:
[xslt-which-creates-xsl-fo]transforms[data-source]into thexsl-fo-output= an xml containing content + formatting options.The option
<convert-output-xsl-fo-to-pdf/>triggers the function to sendxsl-fo-outputto Apache FOP, which will generate PDF.
The Apache FOP integration with OpenEndpoints includes easy to use options to
Embedding Images into the generated PDF
Embedding Fonts such as Google Fonts into your generated PDF
Advantages of XSL-FO
XSL-FO is a very mature standard for page composition, which was designed for paged media. It is capable of comprehensive layout functionality, which makes it possible to create error-free but also beautiful layouts. For example: Pagination controls to avoid “widows” and “orphans”, the support of multiple columns, indexing, etc. It is the perfect technology to produce “content-driven” design.
For more advantages and disadvantages of XSL-FO see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSL_Formatting_Objects
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