Creating PDF Documents Using ColdFusion & activePDF Matteo Foschetti Technical Evangelist activePDF Inc.

Introduction  Technical Evangelist  Software Engineer  Corporate Trainer  Conference Speaker  Web Programming Instructor

Agenda  Learn About activePDF Inc.

 Discuss PDF & COM Technology  Review ColdFusion MX  Introduce activePDF Toolkit & WebGrabber  Demonstrate activePDF Examples

Survey  PDF  COM  ColdFusion/ColdFusion MX  Tag  activePDF

About activePDF Inc.

 Provider of server-side PDF conversion and development tools  PDF tools free the developer from the dilemmas associated with dynamic PDF creation  Unique in PDF industry by offering a server-based suite of products

About activePDF Inc.

 No additional per user or per document licensing fees  COM object level access within all the activePDF products  Complete control over the PDF generation and manipulation process

What is PDF?

 Portable Document Format  Widespread standard among users for file sharing and exchanges  Platform-independent for viewing on any machine  PDF is well integrated in almost every industry

What is COM?

 Component Object Model  A specification and set of services to enable component portability, reusability, and versioning  Promotes component-based development

What is COM?

 Referred to as objects, controls or components  Contain properties (attributes) and methods (operations)  Callable from any environment that supports COM, such as ColdFusion, Visual Basic, ASP, etc.

The Typical PDF Conversion Process 1) A PostScript file is generated by printing from a native application to a PostScript enabled device by a user 2) A PDF generator application is opened

The Typical PDF Conversion Process 3) PostScript File is located 4) File parameters and output options are selected 5) PostScript-To-PDF conversion takes place 6) User repeats steps 1-5 for each unique document

What is Server-Side PDF Conversion?

 activePDF software resides on a network server  Allows automatic file conversion without user intervention  Alleviates the “guesswork”  Allows full control over security and display settings of documents

ColdFusion MX Overview  Latest ColdFusion Application Server  Parses (reads and compiles) supplied instructions  Processes supplied instructions  Instructions passed to ColdFusion using templates

ColdFusion MX Templates  ColdFusion pages that use ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)  Extend HTML by adding tags with a variety of capabilities  Variables and functions are surrounded by pound signs #….#

CFML & ColdFusion Features  Files use the file extension .cfm or .cfml

 Capable of Linking to External Data Applications  Integration with C/C++, Java, COM, CORBA, and Web Services

Getting Started with COM and ColdFusion  Component objects can be invoked in ColdFusion using tags  creates an instance of an object  invokes properties and methods of the object  displays text

Using Properties  To set a property:  To get a property:

Calling Methods  Methods with no arguments:  Methods with one or more arguments:

Calling Methods  Methods with reference arguments:  Calling nested objects:

Registering COM Objects  In order for ColdFusion to find the COM object, you must register it  With Windows, you use the regsvr32 command with the object file (*.dll, *.ocx), such as: regsvr32 c:\path\servername.dll

Creating & Using COM Objects in ColdFusion Note: You must create the component in ColdFusion before your application pages can invoke any methods or assign any properties in the component!

Creating & Using COM Objects Example

What is activePDF Toolkit?

 Programmable COM object that enables users to create and manipulate PDF documents  With a robust API, ToolKit is used to append, stamp, stitch, merge, paint, form-fill, etc.

Toolkit Features  Simple to add watermarks, set form fields, incorporate headers and footers, extracting ,concatenating pages, etc.

 ToolKit supports latest encryption standards and other unique PDF technologies

Toolkit Basic Steps for Form Filling a PDF 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Open an output destination file (OpenOutputFile Method) Open an input PDF form (OpenInputFile Method) Set the form field values (SetFormFieldData Method) Copy the input form into the destination file (CopyForm Method) Close output destination file (CloseOutputFile)

Toolkit Examples  PDF Form-Filling  Dynamic PDF Report Generation

What is activePDF WebGrabber?

 Programmable COM object that dynamically converts any URL, HTML stream, or HTML file to PDF  Designed for use with activePDF Server as a Multi-Threaded application

WebGrabber Features  Capable of using either the default HTML 3.2 rendering engine or the Microsoft Internet Explorer engine which supports CSS, SSL, Flash, Java, etc.

 Supports latest Encryption standards and Linearization

WebGrabber Basic Steps  Spooling Stage: activePDF WebGrabber is responsible for rendering the HTML  Conversion Stage: activePDF Server is then responsible for producing the PDF document (Multi-threaded)

WebGrabber Examples  On-the-fly HTML to PDF  Web Reporting to PDF

Conclusion  activePDF provides server-side PDF conversion and development tools  PDF is a widespread standard among users for file sharing and exchanges

Conclusion  activePDF COM objects allow full control over security and display settings of documents  Component objects can be invoked in ColdFusion using tags, such as

Conclusion  activePDF Toolkit enables users to create and manipulate PDF documents  activePDF WebGrabber dynamically converts any URL, HTML stream, or HTML file to PDF

References Forta, B., Weiss, N., (2003). Macromedia ColdFusion MX Web Application Construction Kit. (5 th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Macromedia Press.

Macromedia. (2001). Macromedia ColdFusion5 Developing ColdFusion Applications. Macromedia Incorporated.

Balena, F. (1999). Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.

activePDF Inc. (2003). activePDF Press Kit. Retrieved May 12, 2003, from http://www.activepdf.com/en/Corporate/PressKit.asp