Harakiri wrote: > I dont understand that argument - when you are doing a > customized job you have to worry about the connection > to the external datasource
In our case, it's a combination of a TXT log file and Java objects that form an OO layer on top of the D-Isam database. > AND building an XML template with itext The XML doesn't depend on iText. It's a file that changes on a yearly basis and that is maintained by non programmers. They don't want to design a document, they only want to make sure all the official clauses are correct and adapted to the current academic year. > AND programming itext to do you bidding A one time job. Pretty easy if you know iText. > When you use a solution already made for that you only > have to worry about the external data connection - in > my book thats a big difference. The people maintaining the XML don't have any knowledge of the database, they don't know what a data connection is, they wouldn't know how to create a layout. They don't want any references to all this in the XML they have to maintain. They don't want to have to install any tool; other than a plain text editor. > And the external connection can be plugged in really easy > in jasperreports - you dont need to depend on sql, you > can write your custom handle - no matter if you want > to use JNI or not - in essence you will have to do the > same as you would on your full customized project Obviously, there's always more than one way to solve a problem, but in this case, that's how we did it. > Interesting, i did not hear about BIRT yet - can you > make any statement regarding it vs jasperreports ? I > can tell you that JR is pretty good, you dont have to > worry about pagination and such - however the limited > styled HTML (richtext) is a minus if you export to PDF > - you will have to extend the pdfexporter class for > more richtext functionallity I don't know JR well enough to comment on it. I've seen a project using BIRT in action and I can say that making the template is a very intuitive job that can be done by people who don't know the first thing about XML or programming. Also, I have studied the way iText is used internally. They use iText on the lowest level (PdfContentByte) and this has the advantage that they can tune the PDF exactly the way they want. Pagination, the creation of an outline tree, adding stuff that is specific to PDF and can't be done in HTML (for instance a watermark), is easy to achieve. Also there's support for CJK and other special fonts. It's nice. But again: there's more than one way to solve each problem; and without knowing the exact requirements of a project, it's not easy to tell which solution is best. br, Bruno ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://itext.ugent.be/itext-in-action/
