Hi Daniel, > I really don't know how you'd approach it from the OOo side of things. > Since PDF::ReportWriter requires complex items to be passed into it ( > structures that describe fields, groups, and the data array itself ), I > suppose the easiest ( and dodgiest ) way of approaching it would be to > construct a temporary file in the format of a Perl data structure, and > then add support to PDF::ReportWriter for loading the report definition > and data from these files. Along the same theme, I suppose I could add > support to PDF::ReportWriter for loading a report definition and data > from a database.
I suppose as long as there's no UNO binding for perl, passing the report definition in an external medium - be it a file or a database - is the way to go. The difficult thing might be the data access. Not sure if we would really want to transport all those data via a file. But everything else would again require access in Perl to OOo's database drivers -> UNO binding. > It's also highly likely that there are better approaches around. It's up > to people here to discuss whether it's worthwhile pursuing > PDF::ReportWriter option or not. Let me mention an alternative way: You might have seen Majid Ali Khan on this list recently - he's currently developing an OASIS export filter for Jasper Reports (http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net), a widely used open source report generator. Such an export, together with a way to deliver OOo database data to Jasper, would also provide a (basic) reporting solution. Providing the data here would be easier, since Java *has* an UNO binding. > As you say, OOo doesn't include a Perl > distribution, so I suppose there's a hurdle to get over before you > start. Of course OOo already relies on Java for the database module > anyway, so IMHO all the arguments for this ( relying on Java ) also > apply to Perl. Well, I think Perl would even be less problematic from the "religious" point of view, since the usual "But Java is not really free"-arguments would not apply to Perl, /me thinks. > so I'm sure people who have an affinity for OOBasic / Java / whatever > could port it relatively easily ... assuming OOo's PDF rendering support > is up to it. OOo does not support direct rendering. Instead, you can print documents on an "PDF device". So, as Alex mentioned, we would need to create a OOo document first. Would have the additional advantage that people can do fine-tuning to the document, before exporting it to PDF or printing it, on a level which is not possible by editing the mere report definition. > I assume you want a GUI report designer ... somebody else can do that > :) That, of course, is a topic of its very own ... However, coming back to the above-mentioned alternative way: Jasper Report also has an UI designer for creating report definitions .... Ciao Frank -- - Frank Schönheit, Software Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] - - Sun Microsystems http://www.sun.com/staroffice - - OpenOffice.org Database http://dba.openoffice.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
