Hi
Can anybody which is the best pdf generator in rails.There are many like
* HTMLDOC * PdfWriter * PDF::Writer (Austin Ziegler) * Ruby FPDF * JasperReports * PDF Form Fill * PDFlib and PDFlib-Lite * Rfpdf
Can anybody suggest which is the best among these?I am beginner in ror
Sijo
I don't have an experienced or educated opinion on which is the best pdf generator in rails but I know Peepcode has a PDF on the topic:
http://peepcode.com/products/rails2-pdf
Sijo Kg wrote:
Hi
Is it for rails2.0? .But I am using rails 1.2.5
Sijo
I'm sorry. I made a mistake. It doesn't deal with creating PDFs. Here is a screencast on generating PDFs:
It depends on your needs. PDF::Writer is, I think, the most widely used, but you have to control it using its own language to describe the page. This is fine if you're generating simple PDF files but rapidly gets complicated if you're generating rich documents.
If you have a page formatted in HTML and CSS and you want to create a PDF of it, that is a much harder problem. I haven't used it myself, but there have been several reporrts that PrinceXML is by far the best solution. Unfortunately, it is not open-source and not inexpensive.
There's a nice writeup that compares the alternatives here: http://sublog.subimage.com/articles/2007/05/29/html-css-to-pdf-using-ruby-on-rails
Michael Slater www.BuildingWebApps.com Resources for Rails Developers
Thanks for your reply
No, there’s nothing out there that comes even close to what PrinceXML does. It’s unbelievably fast, reliable and easy to work with and support is very responsive, which is essential for a closed source product. It is a hefty price tag, I completely agree, especially when you deploy your applications on customers’ servers. You could apply for an OEM license if this is the case, although I doubt it will really bring the pricetag down very much.
Best regards
Peter De Berdt
Nothing is as good as Prince…I should know 
http://sublog.subimage.com/articles/2007/05/29/html-css-to-pdf-using-ruby-on-rails
JasperReports iReport is very powerful. Outputs first class reports directly from a database as well. It is also free. There is a learning curve with iReport and requires understanding database relationships but it performs flawlessly producing pdf, rtf, xls, and others.
Outputting reports from a Rails app works quite well but it is a bitch to set up. I had to hire a Java guy to help with a one time setup., but it was worth it. I can now create my own reports quite easily. Again the Java setup is the tough part. If anyone wants his email let me know.
Someone suggested a plugin, I think that is a great idea.
You can find a description of setting up the interface between rails and JasperReports here : http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowtoIntegrateJasperReports
I actually updated the description after setting it up succesfully on my own development machine. In the end it proved to be not all that difficult.
I've got ROR to create an XML file. I've pasted it to notepad....treid to read it with ROR - no good !
I've been trying to use iReports -with various XML files and have had varying degrees of success. The most frustrating thing is that the [read fields] button will not read in the fields data from the xml file for every XML file I create. The field panel will not open on the right. The respone to the read fields button varys from ignoring it, message saying found nodes: 6, seaching for.... etc, but no reading of fields. I'm using ver. 2.0.4 of iReport. Using XPATH2 in all cases, it seems to me that iReports is erratic.....
I started with an attempt to generate an XML file from Ruby as suggested in ;-http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/ HowtoIntegrateJasperReports I pasted the XML text into Notepad and saved , encoding as UTC-8. No good ........ iReports would not read fields...
Is there a line by line tutorial on reading in XML files into iReports ?
I did find one on the iReport site and copied a suggested XML file - Lo and Behold it worked ! However I cannot see any difference between it and the XML file I created. How can it be that XML files that appear to be formatted identically, can respond so differently...
At this stage I'm totally puzzled...... ( At times like this I remember the advise in the world according to GARP --- "..keep passing the open windows....")
Is http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowtoIntegrateJasperReports still valid for iReports ver 2.0.4 .... Grasping at straws...........
I eventually want to access a database from a Ruby on Rails Application and output to PDF..
iReports is brilliant , when i can get it to read the data...
By the way, does everybody have the issue with Javaw.exe taking ages to interface with Windows XP whenever an OPEN/BROWSE/SAVE is used ??
Denis
Although I've never used it, I discovered Prawn the other day (see the link on the page for Prawnto, a Rails plugin which uses Prawn). http://prawn.majesticseacreature.com/
Robert
Although I've never used it, I discovered Prawn the other day (see the link on the page for Prawnto, a Rails plugin which uses Prawn). http://prawn.majesticseacreature.com/
Robert
If I recall correctly, prawn grew out of PDF::Writer (I still use this one, mainly due to the code I wrote to drive it, but I should probably explore prawn, now that it has had some time to mature).
Ar Chron wrote:
Although I've never used it, I discovered Prawn the other day (see the link on the page for Prawnto, a Rails plugin which uses Prawn). http://prawn.majesticseacreature.com/
Robert
If I recall correctly, prawn grew out of PDF::Writer
[...]
So far as I know, you do not recall correctly. I believe Prawn was independently developed.
In any case, Prawn's very nice to use and I generally recommend it highly. Among other things, I seem to recall that it handles UTF-8 text *far* better than PDF::Writer. Ryan Bates has a Railscast that should get you started with Prawn.
Best,