autosun
Total posts: 3
06 Jan 2015 08:41

Hi,

Can I export my template data into PDF or create PDF using cobalt plugin (if available?) and send the PDF to the users. I have tried many CCK but unfortunately I did not find the PDF export facility in them.

Regards, Automill

Last Modified: 10 Mar 2015


andiamine VIP
Total posts: 295
06 Jan 2015 09:08

can u list features of PDF Field, maybe i can do.


Sergey
Total posts: 13,748
06 Jan 2015 15:00

This is nearly impossible to create nice PDF export. this is also why Joomla abandoned this feature. Because it was never working well.

Use 3d party online services that can gnerate PDF from URL.


autosun
Total posts: 3
07 Jan 2015 11:39

Thanks you andiamine & Sergey for quick reply.

Dear Adniamine, However I did not created yet, but I have form of 200 to 400 fields and almost all of them are text field type. Out of this form, I want to creat a audit report which will have 40 to 50 pages in HTML. But for the client, I want to send it in PDF. The PDF formatting is like a table in 2 to 5 columns.

Dear Sergey, I have used PhocaPDF (joomla ver 3.X) and it is based on TCPDF library. The problem is, it creates PDF from joomla article pages only. Secondly, It has not exploited the full features of TCPDF (like, page formatting, database lookup & joins, page numbers etc.) However, some developers are providing full version of TCPDF plugin for Joomla 3.X, But I dont know how to integrate it with cobalt8. I found this TCPDF plugin for Joomla 3.X here:

http://www.raslab.org/en/filerepository/item/tcpdf-library-for-joomla-full-version

This is TCPDF main site: http://www.tcpdf.org

Regards, Autosun


Sergey
Total posts: 13,748
08 Jan 2015 05:22

autosun Dear Sergey, I have used PhocaPDF (joomla ver 3.X) and it is based on TCPDF library.

That is true. Because Joomla core articles are simple. Text and picture. But Cobalt content is complicated. Fields may include Javascript code in order to be displaied. There may be tabs ans collapses. It is hard to create nice PDF out of this without emulation. And PDF emulation is usulay done on windows servers. It is like you open website in a browser and then save it as PDF but on programming level without really opening anything. Or opening it in a background. Any way, PHP is not good here. It is usulay done on C++/C#.

autosun I want to creat a audit report which will have 40 to 50 pages in HTML. But for the client, I want to send it in PDF. The PDF formatting is like a table in 2 to 5 columns.

So you create report manually? Even if Cobalt would have PDF generation, How you wanted cobalt to generate PDF not out of it's article but from your custom HTML?


autosun
Total posts: 3
08 Jan 2015 12:11

Sergey you explained well that PDF has limitation on the web server. Actually I was planing to create a form (with 50 fields x 6 tables) in Cobalt8 and then create the template to display the form data in desired format as HTML output for my Audit Report. This is possible in cobalt.

Sergey So you create report manually? Even if Cobalt would have PDF generation, How you wanted cobalt to generate PDF not out of it's article but from your custom HTML?

And after gennerating my form data using cobalt I want to create the PDF from my HTML output using TCPDF.


Sergey
Total posts: 13,748
12 Jan 2015 06:45

autosun And after gennerating my form data using cobalt I want to create the PDF from my HTML output using TCPDF.

Let's see what you will get. When you generate HTML make sure it is as plain as possible. Also you should know that by adding &tmpl=component to your URL you may get rid of all modules.


Sackgesicht VIP
Total posts: 1,636
12 Jan 2015 10:42

Another option might be the usage of a 3rd party module/component, which will create output (tables) based on SQL queries. You query your cobalt content and let the other componet do the export/PDF creation.

Example components like jDBexport, alterbrains report, etc ...


brianpat VIP
Total posts: 211
10 Mar 2015 21:11

you could also use rs form which has the capability of exporting forms to pdf.

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