REQ: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

M

mark4asp

I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is free).
We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point the
parser gave up parsing to the </a>]. 2) The hyperlinks are rendered
with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to support a very
narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream pdf
documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and styled?
 
S

Scott Roberts

abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all HTML
supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().
 
M

mark4asp

Scott said:
abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
HTML supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().



mark4asp said:
I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
free). We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
the parser gave up parsing to the </a>]. 2) The hyperlinks are
rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
styled?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
is not a complete document (e.g. It has no <body> tag). Sometimes this
will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.

There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
which is why I use AddHtml().

The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
- it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.

Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?
 
B

bruce barker

iTextSharp is pretty good, but its a simple api for wrting pdf. its does not
have a html to pdf convertor, nor does it support nested tables (last time I
used iTextSharp I had to rewrite the table rending to support this).

html to pdf is difficult. most of the the engines that do this, call IE to
render, then supply a print driver that IE calls to produce the pdf. they
then harvest the output of the printer driver.

check your html in IE and do a print preview to see how it will render.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)


mark4asp said:
Scott said:
abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
HTML supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().



mark4asp said:
I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
free). We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
the parser gave up parsing to the </a>]. 2) The hyperlinks are
rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
styled?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
is not a complete document (e.g. It has no <body> tag). Sometimes this
will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.

There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
which is why I use AddHtml().

The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
- it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.

Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?
Click to expand...
 
S

Scott Roberts

mark4asp said:
Scott said:
abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
HTML supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().



mark4asp said:
I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
free). We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
the parser gave up parsing to the </a>]. 2) The hyperlinks are
rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
styled?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
is not a complete document (e.g. It has no <body> tag). Sometimes this
will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.

There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
which is why I use AddHtml().

The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
- it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.

Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?
Click to expand...

So what you've really got is partial HTML that needs to be appended to an
existing PDF?

You might try AddImageHtml() and see what you get. If it complains because
your HTML is not well-formed, you might try wrapping the HTML with a
"<body>" tag (and other necessary HTML tags) to make it well-formed then
pass the well-formed HTML to AddImageHtml().

I have not used any of the other PDF tools. ABCpdf has done everything I
need so far (although I'll admit that our demands are not that great).
 
A

Affine Mesh

"... a narrow subset of HTML", really?

But ABCpdf fully supports HTML and CSS! The output you see should be practically identical to that of Internet Explorer.

How are you referencing external stylesheets?

Note that content added with Doc.AddImageHtml() doesn't have a file location as such, so any stylesheet or resource referenced relatively may not get resolved.

Here are a few things you can try:
* Use absolute referencing for external resources
* Set the HTML base tag to an appropriate base location.
* Use Doc.AddImageUrl() instead.
* Specify in-line stylesheets.

The hyperlink and underscore issue sounds like a bug that was fixed sometime ago. Have you tried the latest update?
I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is free).
We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point the
parser gave up parsing to the </a>]. 2) The hyperlinks are rendered
with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to support a very
narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream pdf
documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and styled?
On Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:50 AM Scott Roberts wrote:
abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all HTML
supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 

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