Converting .html files to PDF

Hi All,

We are presently using TS 6.7.1 SP4 on Solaris 10. Our end users wants a functionality of convert any of the .html page to .pdf so that they can download the .pdf version.

This has to be done on the fly.

Is there any Tool wrt to IW products that can help us in achiving this.

Thanks
Prem pratick.

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prem_pratick

Basically I wanted to know about the Content Transformation Services. has any one used it. and how to configure the same.

Adam Stoller

Basically I wanted to know about the Content Transformation Services. has any one used it. and how to configure the same.

From the documentation (emphasis added):[indent]Content Transformation Services Powered by CambridgeDocs provides a method for TeamSite users to convert Microsoft Word documents to PDF or HTML output.[/indent]Based on your post - this is not what you want.

Instead - I think you want to be looking for information on fop[indent]Apache FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is a print formatter driven by XSL formatting objects (XSL-FO) and an output independent formatter. It is a Java application that reads a formatting object (FO) tree and renders the resulting pages to a specified output. Output formats currently supported include PDF, PS, PCL, AFP, XML (area tree representation), Print, AWT and PNG, and to a lesser extent, RTF and TXT. The primary output target is PDF.[/indent]Personally, I have not used it - but if you search the forums (I think the FormsPublisher forum specifically) there were some threads regarding this a number of years back.

Another alternative is to find some other form of PDF print-driver so that you can save to-be-printed output in PDF format (I get it for free with my Mac - you can pay a bunch of money for something from Adobe, or you may be able to find a lower-cost alternative out there - I haven't bothered looking)

msrinivas

CTS would be a way to do it. Please be aware that CTS is not OOTB and is available at an additional cost. The CTS documentation available on the support site outlines the installation and config procedures.

msrinivas

From the documentation (emphasis added):[indent]Content Transformation Services Powered by CambridgeDocs provides a method for TeamSite users to convert Microsoft Word documents to PDF or HTML output.[/indent]

Hmm...I haven't looked at CTS in a long while but I thought it was good for html to pdf also.

Either way, there are 3rd party tools that are also available to do the same.

Adam Stoller

Hmm...I haven't looked at CTS in a long while but I thought it was good for html to pdf also.

I thought it did the HTML to PDF stuff too - but never investigated it as none of my customers were using it. I just looked at the manual and saw that.

gzevin

Basically I wanted to know about the Content Transformation Services. has any one used it. and how to configure the same.

if you don't want to pay IWOV for CTS, you can do it using free tools. Done that a number of times.

TommyWillB

gzevin please elaborate.

What free tools? How should this be approached?

gzevin

gzevin please elaborate.

What free tools? How should this be approached?

Tom,

there are a lots of free tools, if you google for, say 'html2pdf'.

Some of them use a similar technique that I used (ghostscript, a2ps, etc), some do different ones.

FOP (google it as well) is also a good idea.

gzevin

gzevin please elaborate.

What free tools? How should this be approached?

will save you from googling:

http://www.tufat.com/s_html2ps_html2pdf.htm

http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/10/16/fop.html

RonaldV

Hi Prem,

if you say "Our end users want functionality" do you mean your Teamsite end users or your website end users?

Converting html to pdf for downloads (& "on the fly") sounds like a nice website functionality to me and should best be handled by the website, that is your .net/java/php/ruby or what ever engine you have running alongside your webserver.

I would, at first glance, not put these functions in Teamsite.

Cheers, Ronald

gzevin

Hi Prem,

if you say "Our end users want functionality" do you mean your Teamsite end users or your website end users?

Converting html to pdf for downloads (& "on the fly") sounds like a nice website functionality to me and should best be handled by the website, that is your .net/java/php/ruby or what ever engine you have running alongside your webserver.

I would, at first glance, not put these functions in Teamsite.

Cheers, Ronald

while having pdf conversion on the fly is one of the requirements that might come up, I did see mostly the need to convert to PDF while still in CMS.

prem_pratick

Hi,

************
We use DD to save the Data in Db and OD to push the assets {files/etc} to webserver. We use Java/J2EE for making the webpages.

The Webpage do not physically exists on the server. {like www.castrol.com}.

We were looking for a functionality where a person goes and select/fill some form on the website and then he gets a Link to convert the page to a .pdf for download. Or a normal page that a user would like to save as a .pdf.

We are still looking at all the possible solutions. from CMS end/Java-J2EE end. Once we get all the options we would look at the feasibility part.

*********
In our other Env we generate .aspx/.html pages we are looking for the same functionality over here also.

Thanks
Prem.

Adam Stoller

Hi,

************
We use DD to save the Data in Db and OD to push the assets {files/etc} to webserver. We use Java/J2EE for making the webpages.

The Webpage do not physically exists on the server. {like www.castrol.com}.

We were looking for a functionality where a person goes and select/fill some form on the website and then he gets a Link to convert the page to a .pdf for download. Or a normal page that a user would like to save as a .pdf.

We are still looking at all the possible solutions. from CMS end/Java-J2EE end. Once we get all the options we would look at the feasibility part.

*********
In our other Env we generate .aspx/.html pages we are looking for the same functionality over here also.

Thanks
Prem.

So this is all front-end functionality - not TeamSite / back-end functionality. I think the ideas posted with respect to [searching for] tools that create PDFs and finding a way to utilize them from your front-end web server would probably be the way to go. You might also look into CSS as a means of formatting output for printing differently than it appears on the web site (e.g.: without navigation elements and such, formatted for standard page widths, etc.) - though without a PDF print driver on the client machine that probably won't help you too much (works nicely on a Mac, but that probably doesn't help you either ;-)