Version 8.2 (2013-03-18)

PDF and FOP Services

The PDF standard (portable document format, defined by Adobe) is a commonly accepted way for producing high-quality documents for printable output. By the usage of plug-in modules (Adobe Reader), the output can be displayed and printed in any browser.

Creating PDF is a standard issue when providing user interfaces through the browser. This is the reason why Application Designer introduced a couple of PDF services. The Application Designer ideas which are applied in the area of HTML-based GUIs for applications are transferred into the generation of PDF output:

This documentation is organized under the following headings:

../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Introduction General information on Application Designer's FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) services.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png The First PDF Document Explains the steps for creating a PDF document that is rendered inside the browser.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Page Layout Controls Describes the controls used for the layout of a print form.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Container Controls Describes the controls for table definitions.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Distance Controls Describes the controls for keeping the distance in a table.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Text Output Controls Describes the controls for the output of text.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Other Controls Describes the controls for lists of data, and for style, image, barcode and new pages.
../graphics/gr_b_sm.png Printing Explains how to produce paper printouts.

Note:
An Application Designer form contains an arrangement of controls. The controls are represented by XML tags with corresponding properties. Each control tag and each tag property is described in this documentation. The descriptions can also be reached by accessing the control wizards inside the Layout Painter.

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