The XML to PDF (0.2) and XML to PDF (0.9) filters take an XML document and apply an XSLT stylesheet transformation using an XSLT file, which transforms the XML document to an XSL:FO compliant one. This is then rendered to Portable Document Format (PDF).

The XML to PDF (0.2) filter uses version 0.2 of Apache Formatting Objects Processor (FOP), while the XML to PDF (0.9) filter uses version 0.9. Refer to the Apache™ FOP Compliance Page for details.

Configuration Properties

Property

Description

Maximum Concurrency

The maximum level of concurrency for this filter. A setting of 0 (zero) means unlimited. Limiting the level of concurrency limits memory usage. Refer to Maximum Concurrency for details.

Output Format

Sets the format of the output message.

  • PDF (default).
  • Postscript.
  • PCL.
  • Text.

When using the filter with the Printer communication point, use the communication point's PostScript output.

XSLT File

Identifies the XSLT file used to transform the input message from an XML data document to a PDF file.

This file is not required if the incoming file is already in XSL:fo format.

Configuration File

An optional XML FOP configuration file used to add extra fonts to the FOP XSL:fo processor.

Input EDI Definition

The EDI message definition of the input file. If this is specified, the filter converts the incoming file to XML format. If an XSLT file is specified in the XSLT File property, then the file is converted from XML to PDF format without requiring further user action.

XSL Background

XSL is a language for expressing stylesheets. An XSL stylesheet is a file that describes how to display an XML document of a given type and includes:

  • A transformation language for XML documents: XSLT. This is a general purpose XML processing language and is widely used for tasks such as generating HTML web pages from XML data.
  • Advanced styling features, expressed by an XML document type which defines a set of formatting objects: XSL:fo. Refer to The Extensible Stylesheet Language Family (XSL) for details.

Generating PDF

The most straight-forward way to produce a PDF from XML is to write in a syntax known as XSL-FO. This is a set of formatting instructions in XML which, when rendered through a formatter, will produce a PDF.

Rhapsody uses the Apache Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) XSL:FO library. Refer to Apache™ FOP for details on FOP.