PDF Created With XSLT
Originally XSLT specifically was designed to support a 2-step process of
- 1.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. - 2.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:
- 1.
[xslt-which-creates-xsl-fo]transforms[data-source]into thexsl-fo-output= an xml containing content + formatting options. - 2.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 Fonts such as Google Fonts into your generated PDF
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
Last modified 4mo ago