WYSIWYG Exports
---------------
Key: DISPL-245
URL: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/DISPL-245
Project: DisplayTag
Type: Improvement
Components: HTML Generation, Export
Versions: 1.1
Fix For: 1.1
Attachments: displaytagExportPoiPatch.txt, displaytagPatch.txt
Request for enhancements of the export facility
1. The default exporters should render the table as close as possible
to the rendered HTML. When typical business users are presented with the
displaytag export facility, they usually expect the exported Excel or PDF to
look just like the HTML in their browser; they expect a WYSIWYG rendering.
2. The export API should encourage reuse of the table-rendering logic
employed to render the table in a JSP. For instance, to render the grouping
in my PDF export just as it appears in the HTML, I would have had to
re-implement TableTag.groupColumns(). Also, any future changes to the
table rendering would not be included in my PDF export. So, this looked
like a job for the Template Method pattern, which also applies nicely to the
decorators, to ensure that the HTML and default export
renderings will be in synch.
3. Include caption in export.
4. Include footer in export.
5. Export in RTF format.
The attached patch implements the above enhancements.
<a
href="http://www.jamesgood.com:8080/displaytag-examples-1.1-SNAPSHOT/example-new-export.jsp";>
Here's a live example and a more detailed explanation.</a>
Following are potential additional export enhacements I'm working on.
1. Use css table styles as style configuration for Excel, PDF, and RTF exports.
If not practical, provide export style config properties.
2. Specify Excel formats for columns, e.g., ##.##.
3. Include smart linking in Excel, PDF, and RTF exports.
4. Export just the current page, a page range, or all data, especially if
paging is used.
The ui may look like this:
Export options: Excel | PDF | RTF | From: [1] To: [1] (default to this page)
Export options: Excel | PDF | RTF | From: [1] To: [max] (default to all)
Defaults to exporting what's on the page currently. Default would be
configurable through property.
6. Set the column width to the max column string value width.
7. Exporters should support nested tables.
8. Implement font styles in RTF export, e.g., bold face.
9. Export in MS Word format using POI.
Related Jira issues:
<ol>
<li>http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/DISPL-194
<li>http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/DISPL-123
</ol>
Unit Tests:
The main code change this patch supplies is a refactoring of the table-rendering
code. As such, the relevant unit test are the existing tests,
<a
href="http://www.jamesgood.com:8080/displaytag-examples-1.1-SNAPSHOT/docs/multiproject/displaytag/junit-report.html";>
all of which succeeded.</a>
-Jorge
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