I'm using Apache FOP to generate a PDF through XML and XSL-FO. I have a cell in my generated PDF that I need to be able to scroll through if the content overflows it. XSL-FO has an overflow="scroll" feature, but based on my research on the topic it seems that Apache FOP does not support this option.
For example, here is a scrollable region in a PDF used by a large CAD company that I need to replicate:
Is there any way to enable this feature in Apache FOP? Is it possible to enable it in the source code (I haven't been able to find a way to do so)? Any other ways to tackle this issue?
No, it isn't possible.
From the FO perspective:
In the XSL-FO Recommendation the scroll value for the property overflow comes from the corresponding CSS2 definition, which includes this clarification:
When this value is specified and the target medium is "print", overflowing content should be printed.
As the PDF output is a print-oriented medium, I read this as a confirmation that FOP is correct in printing the overflowing content.
From the PDF perspective:
In the PDF Reference 6th edition, a search for the word "scroll" returns results referring either to the scrolling bars in the user interface or in interactive forms (text fields, list boxes, combo boxes).
There is not, or at least I could not find it, a "static text object, but with scrolling bars" feature (which is probably sensible for a print-oriented format), so FOP cannot create it in the PDF output file, not even modifying the source code.
A second look at your comment and the screenshot you included made me think it could be an example of the 3D Artwork feature of the PDF format, a feature I didn't know of before (and I still know nothing besides its name). According to the reference:
Specific views of 3D artwork can be specified, including a default view that is displayed initially and other views that can be selected. Views can have names that can be presented in a user interface.
So, I think your screenshot shows the different views associated to a 3D object; it is not a general-purpose feature that could be used to provide scrollable text.
Well, it could be possible ...
It is possible but as far as I know not with Apache FOP. Without seeing the PDF in question and guessing from the screen shot, it looks like a Flash widget inserted into the PDF. This in PDF terms is a RichMedia annotation (requires PDF version 1.7 with extensions) in which you can insert the Flash widget as well as other controlling files (like XML, other images to display, etc.) and relate them together.
AFAIK, only RenderX XEP (whom I work for) supports such RichMedia annotations inserted into PDF via XSL FO through the rx:rich-media-object extension documented here: http://www.renderx.com/reference.html#Rich Media
I believe, the only viewer that supports PDF with RichMedia annotations is Adobe Reader so it is required to view such a file. Here is a sample that includes a few interactive flash widgets, some interactive charts all within a few page PDF that was generated long ago. NOTE: I am sure some of the links in the document do not go anywhere, it was for a trade show many years ago. Remember, you would need to download this file and view in Adobe Reader and have flash player installed to see it function.
http://www.cloudformatter.com/Resources/Samples/RichMedia.pdf
You cannot use common PDF browser-based viewers like Chrome or Firefox as they do not support this type of annotation.
A screenshot of page one here shows an interactive, scrolling widget. Page 4 contains a widget similar to what you show in your example.
Page 4 scrolling widget very similar to your request:
The widget on the last page is created using a scroller SWF that takes parameters that are the images and setup/configuration files that are XML. The RenderX extension object takes these as parameters and embeds all of them in the document for the interactive flash widget so that it is totally self-contai9ned in the PDF. The XSL FO to do this is:
<rx:rich-media-object name="Sample HTML Widget" scaling="non-uniform" width="611.92pt"
height="74.99pt" content-width="scale-to-fit" src="url('rx-scroller\dockmenu.swf')"
transparency="true" activate-condition="page_visible">
<rx:flash-var name="setupXML" value="rx-dock-settings.xml"/>
<rx:flash-var name="contentXML" value="rx-dock-contents.xml"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="rx-dock-settings.xml"
src="url('rx-scroller\rx-dock-settings.xml')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="rx-dock-contents.xml"
src="url('rx-scroller\rx-dock-contents.xml')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="style.css" src="url('rx-scroller\css\style.css')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer1.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer1.png')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer2.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer2.png')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer3.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer3.png')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer4.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer4.png')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer5.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer5.png')"/>
<rx:rich-media-resource name="customer6.png" src="url('rx-scroller\images\customer6.png')"/>
</rx:rich-media-object>
And note that many things that are in the flash would work, like links and such. It is just a pure, interactive flash inserted into PDF as the container.
Indeed it looks like this is not possible to achieve through FOP.
Continuing to dig around for a few days, however, I did find a clever post-processing alternative that is also free, essentially embedding a PDF inside of another PDF using the LaTeX animate package.
A drawback to this method is that it is not possible to embed links inside of the scrollable region, which is a major issue for me. But the method does enable inserting a scrollable region inside of an existing PDF and got me very close to what I was trying to achieve.
A rather technical question, but it's still a valid one. I have an app based rather loosely on the AQGridView project. Does anyone know an efficient method for getting the url's from a cell (objectatindex) and then sending those links one at a time to get a thumbnail of the first pdf page. After that all I would need to do is just set it as the image for the cell. I have taken a look at this and found it unsatisfactory as it is non-void and un-dispatch-able. I've tried calling it in a void method, but it was trying to parse every link at once, and they are very large PDF's.
Nevermind, this project by Raphael Cruzeiro Illustrates it perfectly.
I've been looking for 2 days for a solution to that problem but didn't found anything yet. I need to create a PDF File with only one page which shows its content in a table (like a timetable). I'd like to fill the cells with string values, that I am getting from a XML file.
PDFKit wasn't usefull so far and Quartz 2D appears not to be a solution because it's quit complicated to draw a table which I can change easily. Are there any librarys or so to just create a one-paged-tableshowing PDF? Thanks
The easiest approach with the greatest flexibility would probably be to generate the table as HTML, use a WebView to display it and render it to PDF using NSView's dataWithPDFInsideRect: method.
I'm currently writing a QuickLook plugin, and I wondering how I can display an image and some information about that image at the same time, similar to http://www.code-line.com/software/sneakpeekphoto/ .
There is only one way to do so: Convert your content to an already supported one. This means either PDF or HTML. There are two options you have:
For static information you create a simple PDF preview by rendering a view into a PDF. (Use -dataWithPDFInsideRect: method of NSView)
For dynamic information create a HTML page with links and so on. QuickLook will then show it. (I think this is also the way your example does it.)
We have not found a way to create complex previews on ur own and had to stick to one of the methods, too. Keynote and Pages do the same -- they convert their presentations to multi-page PDF previews...
I am working on the PDF App for iPad and facing an issue: how to search a text in PDF and also how to highlight that text?
Yours is the same big problem I'm having. My understanding is that, currently on iOS 4.0, the main public API is CGPDF . It allows us to parse PDF, and with it we can search strings in it. See also this Quartz 2D document. It also allows us to render it on the screen using CGContextDrawPage. However, it's not yet possible to get the position of a text in the rendered image. (On OS X it's possible using PDFKit.)
So, I'm afraid that you need to implement the PDF spec yourself to get that info. I think GoodReader etc. is working very very hard to implement these.
I had the same trouble recently and then I found FastPDFKit. Have tested the package and it's working great.
http://mobfarm.eu/fastpdfkit