6 replies to this topic

[Ross Bevin]

Hi everyone,

For several years now I have been trying to find the time to add PDF Invoice functionality to our application. Four years ago I played around with XMLReportDesigner from Antenna House. This was before Northgate added XML - PDF functionality to ProIV. I had created a report function to output the invoice to XML and I used this XML with XMLReportDesigner to design my Invoice layout. Anyway, I still have copies of the .xsl file that XMLReportDesigner produced so I changed my "Invoice to XML" function to instead output to PDF using the XSL template. When I run the function I get no PDF document. In the Spooler section I have set the following:


Output Type: XML - to physical file, File Name: D:\TEMP\INVOICE.PDF, XML Transform: INVOICE.XSL.

I have also added PROIV_XSL=D:\TEMP to our pro4v6.ini file. We are running 6.2.65.0

Can anyone shed some light on why I get no output? Now, Antenna House does say they can't guarantee that the .xsl transform produced by XMLReportDesigner will work perfectly with another formatting product but I would expect to see something or at least an error message. The xsl if from 4 years ago so could ProIV not like an older format document?

Also, can anyone tell me what they have used as a an XSL design tool that has worked with ProIV. I'm especially interested in a high level design tool as I have no patience learning the guts of XSL editing.

Thanks in advance.

Ross

[Wim Soutendijk]

Hi Ross,

You can start by checking the jvmerr.log file in the virtual machine\logs directory
In the environment section of pro4v6.ini there is a variable PROIV_XSL. Make sure you have your xsl file placed in that directory

wim

[Neil Hunter]

You using a XSL or XSLT file? What version of XSL ? 1.0 or 2.0? I used Altova Stylevision, but even that was clunky and cumbersome to use in my eyes. I've started using a different approach, Crystal reports with a command line rpt to pdf converter

[Ross Bevin]

Hi Wim,


Yes, I have the PROIV_XSL variable set in pro4v6.ini. Jamie on the ProIV Forum suggested I try printing the documentation for a function first as a test just to see if ProIV documentation to PDF is working. I did and I got a thread exception error when printing a file definition. I then removed the PROIV_XSL variable, started a new session and it printed correctly. Jamie also suggested placing the xsl file in \Virtual Machine\xsl folder, which I did.

Thanks for the advice on checking the jvmerr.log. It looks as though there are some elements in my xsl file that are causing the process not to complete.

Regards
Ross

[Ross Bevin]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for your reply! The file is an XSL, version 1.0.

Funny you should mention Crystal Reports. I was asked by my client's VP of IS to look into using Crystal but since I had already designed something with Antenna House I wanted to try it's XSL with ProIV first. I will now look at Crystal. Can you please provide me with a few details on how you use Crystal.

Do you use ProIV to generate the XML data that you feed to Crystal?

Did you design your Crystal report using your XML data as a template?

So do you just do a SYSTEM call within ProIV to Crystal giving it the report name, XML data file input path name & PDF output file path name?

How quick was it for you to design something like an invoice?


Thanks in advance!

Regards

Ross

[Neil Hunter]

Ross, I might be talking rubbish, but I seem to remember P4 need the XSLT file rather than XSL. I'd have to check my old stuff

Setup i'm busy trialling:

Design Crystal report and save the associated rpt (Crystal report extension) file in a directory in PRODATA
Take existing invoice print and convert to extract to CSV files in a temp directory (In conjunction with ODBC, you can specify that data exists in the same directory as you rpt file). Haven't tried the XML route
Use a system call to convert the rpt to PDF using Crystal Reports Exporter.
Copy the converted pdf to the client machine
Open the client side PDF
Delete any temp directories

With Crystal, I was able to convert an invoice in about 8 hours to match my clients stationary. With XSL:FO, I was struggling after 4 days just with the header portion, so far the tool's i've tried are not simple drag and drop/WYSIWYG

[Ross Bevin]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the reply! The ProIV manual states to enter the XSL file name in the report spooler options. It's my understanding, and I could be wrong, is that ProIV provides the (XSLT processor) that takes the XML output & XSL file to produce the XSL-FO then ultimately the PDF file. XMLReportDesigner from Antenna House is quite a good product. Unfortunately they don't provide any support when you are trialing it. I'm going to take a look at Crystal Reports with the idea of using XML. The main reason is that I have already altered the invoice report to produce XML instead of print. Our invoices are quite complex with many nestings so I think XML is the better route. I will let everyone know how I make out.

Thanks

Ross