On December 5th last year I attended a ProIV Webinar showcasing different Server Side Objects (SSO) Northgate were offering. To my surprise they demoed a SSO that allows us to create PDF documents from within logic. The timing couldn't have been more perfect because the following day we were going to place an order for another solution.
Last week I received an evaluation copy and got to work creating a function to produce PDF Invoices. Instead of working with the existing report function (old and messy) I decided to create a new update function. I just added the same files and copied over the required logic. I was given 5 demo functions that highlight all of the PDF features available. After running them and reviewing their logic I went through and started to build the logic to produce my PDF. All I can say is WOW !!!. This has to be the best new ProIV feature in the last 10 years. Basically it took me 3 days to learn the syntax and complete my function.
To give you a comparison, we were looking at purchasing a solution from Antenna House called XSL Report Designer & AH Formatter. I obtained an evaluation copy and it took me a month to learn and produce my PDF Invoice. With this solution I first had to create a function to produce an XML file containing the invoice structure and data. I then had to learn Report Designer to produced the XSL Style Sheet. You then pass the XSL and XML files through AH Formatter to produce the PDF file. A lot of steps!
If you need to produce PDF documents you will definately want to look at this solution !!!
I have included a copy of an invoice to give you an idea on what's possible. Below are the current features of this SSO.
Regards
Ross
PS: I will post this to the ProIV Forum website as well.
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Version 1.0 Features:
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- Set PDF File Name
- Set PDF Meta Tags Names (title, subject, author)
- Set Page Size (A4, LETTER, LEGAL, LEDGER)
- Set PDF Page Orientation(Landscape, Portrait)
- Set Font Name (Times Roman, Helvetica, Courier, Symbol)
- Set Font Size & Color
- Set Font Style (normal, bold, italic, oblique, underline, line-through)
- Add Paragraph with or without Indentation
- Add Simple Text
- Add Text At Absolute Place
- Add Images with or without Border
- Add Anchor Links
- Add Basic Tables
- Draw Vertical Lines
- Draw Horizontal Lines
- Draw Rectangle and Round Cornered Boxes
- Add Annotations
- Setup PDF Document Version
- Add Watermark Text or Image
- Encrypt PDF with user or/and owner password
- Set PDF Document Permissions
- Add lettered/alphabet ordered or unordered list (with or without indentation)