No PDF support in Drupal, I'm offended ;) jk, I created http://drupal.org/project/fillpdf fillpdf.module for this purpose, but it does indeed depend on iText -- and because there's no PHP support, it's using remote calls to my home server's java servlet for PDF processing. I'm excited to see your progress in this area so I can nix the web service. I mentioned this thread in http://drupal.org/node/369990 fillpdf's documentation in case anyone would be willing to donate for your cause. Anyway, good luck & regards!
Tyler Renelle Pancho Sünderhauf wrote: > > Dear Bruno, dear Paolo, > > I want to inform you that some weeks ago I started porting iText to PHP. > The plan is to lower the prerequisites for running iText on shared > servers, so > every webmaster can make use of the library without needing a Java > environment. > > For some reasons, several PHP-based CMS have postponed or even dropped PDF > support in the last years (this includes the award winning Drupal CMS that > I've been contributing to for years). The reasons include: > - both their custom classes and available free PHP classes were (and still > are) not powerful enough for even the most basic purposes > - using iText over a Java-PHP bridge would have significantly raised the > CMS' > prerequisites and therefore posed barriers for wide adoption > > I believe that a PHP port can help spreading iText and more generally Open > Source PDF generation to a wider audience. While major, professional > websites > already use the free iText library (Java or .NET) or could do so, > commercial > PHP classes are still widely used. > > At this point about one third of the classes have been rawly ported to PHP > 5, > and even the raw port continues to be major work. The following steps > would be > some architectural questions, including the question how close PHP-iText > should follow the original Java iText. > Finally, apart from a different syntax, both PHP's architecture and > built-in > functionality considerably differ from Java and the .NET platforms in some > aspects, which also has impacts on good practices. This includes: no true > overloading, weak typing, dynamic handling of variables' size, few > built-in > objects, limitations in type-casting between custom objects, etc. p.p. I'm > not > even sure if this list includes all of the more important differences. > > So there is still a long way to go, and it's even hard to say for sure, > that > the work will lead to a working and satisfactory result. I will definitely > know > more in a few weeks. At the moment I don't see much sense in sharing the > still > severely broken code with the community. However I will immediately > contribute > the code to a VCS as soon as the port is working to some extent. Also, I'm > open to discuss this and all other questions. > > I'd also be very happy about suggestions, ideas, and answers on the > questions > raised above. Feedback on the general idea would definitely help me keep > devoting considerable amounts of time into the port work. > > Best regards, Pancho > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > This SF.net email is sponsored by: > SourcForge Community > SourceForge wants to tell your story. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword > _______________________________________________ > iText-questions mailing list > iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions > > Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php > > -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/PHP-port-in-the-works-tp21609367p21880939.html Sent from the iText - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create and Deploy Rich Internet Apps outside the browser with Adobe(R)AIR(TM) software. With Adobe AIR, Ajax developers can use existing skills and code to build responsive, highly engaging applications that combine the power of local resources and data with the reach of the web. Download the Adobe AIR SDK and Ajax docs to start building applications today-http://p.sf.net/sfu/adobe-com _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php
