I've been using iText (http://itextpdf.com/) after using PDF::API2 for years. API2 hasn't grown and even once you know it, it's tricky to use. The community is inactive.
iText is Java and the community is vibrant. I'll have my Catalyst app assemble a whole bunch of data and ship it to iText as a JSON object (iText reads XML, too). Then I have a program I wrote in Java suck in the JSON and render the PDF. It's way faster than Perl and there's all sorts of handy features that make doc generation easier. -steve On Mar 14, 2010, at 3:04 AM, Matthias Dietrich wrote: > Hi, > > Am 08.03.2010 um 09:27 schrieb Octavian Rasnita: > >> On 8/03/10 at 8:41 AM +0200, Octavian Rasnita >> <orasn...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Do you know if there is a way of creating PDFs in the same way the HTML >>> templates are created, by just putting a variable name in a certain place >>> and render that pdf file by replacing that variable with its value? >>> (Without needing to specify the position where those variables will be >>> placed) >> >> Unfortunately I don't know if it can help me, because I am blind and I can't >> see if the manually configured positions are displayed correctly. That's why >> I was hoping that there is a solution that works like the common TT >> templating system. > > there is a commercial solution called PDFlib PPS ( > http://www.pdflib.com/products/pdflib-family/pps/ ) which may help you. With > the PPS and the "PDFlib block plugin" you can define text and/or image areas > in your PDF within Acrobat Professional. You can drag them everywhere in the > PDF and set a name for each. In your Perl code you just write text or place > an image into such a named area easliy. > > I used the PDFlib in a previous job and it worked really nice and had lots of > features! The bad thing is that it is a bit expensive (EUR 2390 / USD 3345) > and a license is limited to one server/cpu. But you can download, develop > and test the PDFlib with the PPS addon for free if you can accept having a > stamp on each PDF you produce. > > Regards, > matt > > -- > rainboxx Software Engineering > Matthias Dietrich, Freelancer > > rainboxx | Mobil: +49 151 / 50 60 78 64 > Königsallee 43 | Phone: +49 7141 / 2 39 14 71 > 71638 Ludwigsburg | WWW : http://www.rainboxx.de > > XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Matthias_Dietrich18 > GULP: http://www.gulp.de/profil/rainboxx.html > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > List: Catalyst@lists.scsys.co.uk > Listinfo: http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/catalyst > Searchable archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/catalyst@lists.scsys.co.uk/ > Dev site: http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/ _______________________________________________ List: Catalyst@lists.scsys.co.uk Listinfo: http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/catalyst Searchable archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/catalyst@lists.scsys.co.uk/ Dev site: http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/
