Setting up and creating PDF exports

This description require some basic understanding of eZ publish. Please read the introduction section if there are some concepts you are unfamiliar with.

The PDF template system

The PDF export utilizes templates like regular html sites. Instead of inserting the main result into pagelayout.tpl via $module_result.content, the content is fetched in node/view/pdf.tpl based on the description in the PDF export UI.

Functions for displaying the content:

• attribute_pdf_gui: works just as attribute_view_gui in regular templates. The attribute templates are fetched from content/datatype/pdf/*
• node_view_gui view=pdf: Utilizes node/view/pdf.tpl to show content.
• pdf(....): special functions for inserting content into the PDF document. This function is described in detail in....

After all the content has been inserted through the template system, node/view/execute_pdf.tpl is calle by the system to generate the final PDF.

Modifying the PDF design

The templates used in the PDF generation are normally found in the same place as the html templates, except view is replaced with pdf in the path. Ex : datatype templates are under content/datatype/pdf, and general templates are under content/pdf.

Template overriding is done by creating an override file for override.ini.

In the following example we'll look at how the design of the documentation on this page is done.

Creating our own design

First we need to create the override file for fetching the documentation pages. We add the following to settings/override/overrride.ini.append.php

[documentation]

Source=node/view/pdf.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/documentation.tpl

Subdir=templates

Match[class]=9

This will override all default accesses of the documentation objects.

We now need to create the documentation.tpl file.

{*---- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/documentation.tpl ----*}

 

{* First we add the keywords in the dosumentation page to the keyword index using the bundeled keyword support in the PDF library *}

{attribute_pdf_gui attribute=$node.object.data_map.keywords} 

 

{* Then we check if this is the first template to be called

  if so, start a page counter called main, at offset 1. 

  ( generate_toc will not be send as a parameter to other templates ) *}

{section show=$generate_toc|eq(1)}

 {pdf(pageNumber, hash( identifier, "main",

                        start, 1 ) )}

{/section}

 

{* Insert the name of the documentation object as header level 1,

  font size 24, font Times, align to the left. *}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 1,

                  text, $node.name|wash(pdf),

                  size, 24,

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left ) )}

 

{* The body of the documentation object is an xml text field, so we're going

  to use the build in templates to diplay it's content. *}

{attribute_pdf_gui attribute=$node.object.data_map.body}

 

{* Fetch all children of class 9 (documentation), and add the to the PDF document *}

{let children=$node.children

    class_array=array(9)}

 

{section name=Child loop=$children}

 {section show=$class_array|contains($Child:item.object.contentclass_id)}

   {node_view_gui view=pdf content_node=$Child:item}

 {/section}

{/section}

 

{/let}

 

{* Last we insert and generate frontpage and Table of Contents (toc) *}

 

{section show=$generate_toc|eq(1)}

{* {pdf(createIndex)} *} {* we skip creating keyword index. *}

 {pdf(pageNumber, hash( identifier, "main",

                      stop, 1 ) )}

 {include uri="design:content/pdf/footer.tpl"}

 

{section show=$show_frontpage|eq(1)}

 {pdf(frontpage, hash( text, $intro_text|wash(pdf),

                       align, center,

                        size, 24,

                        top_margin, 200 ) )}

 {pdf(frontpage, hash( text, $sub_intro_text|wash(pdf),

                       align, center,

                        size, 10,

                        top_margin, 700 ) )}

{/section}

 

 {include uri="design:content/pdf/toc.tpl"}

{/section}

Since we wish to display images in the documentation we have to override the embed template. Both Jpeg and Png images are supported.

Add to the override.ini.append.php file :

[embedImage]

Source=content/pdf/embed.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/image.tpl

Subdir=templates

Match[class]=5

Create the template file

{* ------- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/image.tpl ------ *}

 

{default image_class=large

        alignment=false()

        hspace=false()

        border_size=0}

{let image_attribute=$object.data_map.image

    image_content=$image_attribute.content}

 {let image=$image_content[$image_class]}

 

      {pdf(image,hash(src,$image.full_path,

                      width,$image.width,

                      height,$image.height,

                      border,$border_size))}

 

 {/let}

{/let}

{/default}

Futher we wish to render the tables without borders, so we create a override template for the table template

[table]

Source=content/datatype/pdf/ezxmltags/table.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/table.tpl

Subdir=templates

Create the template file.

{* ------- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/table.tpl ------ *}

 

{pdf(table, $rows, hash( showLines, 0 ) )}

The footer is also created by standard overriding. The page numbers are inserted inserting #page for current page number, nd #total for total number of pages.

Add override definition:

[footer]

Source=content/pdf/footer.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/footer.tpl

Subdir=templates

{* ------- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/footer.tpl ------ *}

 

{pdf(footer, hash( text, "eZ publish - http://ez.no"|i18n( "design/standard/content/pdf" )|wash(pdf),

                  size, 10,

                  align, "left" ) ) }

{pdf(footer, hash( text, "#page of #total"|i18n( "design/standard/content/pdf" )|wash(pdf),

                  align, "right",

                  size, 10 ) ) }

{pdf(footer, hash( line, hash( margin, 80,

                              thicknes, 1,

                              size, "full" ) ) ) }

For the titles we wish to use Times Roman, change the font size and alignment.

Add override definition:

[header]

Source=content/datatype/pdf/ezxmltags/header.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/header.tpl

Subdir=templates

Create the template file.

{* ------- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/header.tpl ------ *}

 

{switch name=sw match=$level}

{case match=1}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 1,

                  text, $content|wash(pdf),

                  size, 18,

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left ) )}

{/case}

{case match=2}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 2,

                  text, $content|wash(pdf),

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left,

                  size, 14 ) )}

{/case}

{case match=3}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 3,

                  text, $content|wash(pdf),

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left,

                  size, 12 ) )}

{/case}

{case match=4}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 4,

                  text, $content|wash(pdf),

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left,

                  size, 10 ) )}

{/case}

{case}

{pdf(header, hash( level, 5,

                  text, $content|wash(pdf),

                  font, Times-Roman,

                  align, left,

                  size, 10 ) )}

{/case}

{/switch}

Last we create the table of contents with some indenting and different font size

Add to override:

[toc]

Source=content/pdf/toc.tpl

MatchFile=content/pdf/toc.tpl

Subdir=templates

Create the template file.

{* ------- design/<your design>/override/templates/content/pdf/toc.tpl ------ *}

 

{pdf(toc, hash( size, array( 14, 12, 14, 12, 10 ),

               dots, true(),

                contentText, "Table of contents"|wash(pdf),

                indent, array( 0, 20, 6, 8, 10 ) ) )}