Thanks for the reply.
I will certainly post an example when I get it done. The first cut will just
be functional, and needs some feedback from the customer to get the layout
and details right.
Regarding Tables in FOP, I was reading Dave Pawson's book XSL-FO from
O'Reilly. His quote is:
XSL-FO is not like HTML. It is mostly unnecessary to use tables for layout
as has been done in HTML. The XSL-FO vocabulary provides so much more than
HTML that you shouldn't fall back on tables simply to obtain an effect you
have achieved on the Web. The table-formatting object is for formatting
tabular data. There may be circumstances where table-based formatting is
necessary, but they will be rare.
So, I am glad to hear that Tables are still useful and acceptable.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremias Maerki" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <fop-users@xmlgraphics.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: best way to use fop to layout report.
On 17.02.2006 20:08:19 Tracey Zellmann wrote:
I am getting comfortable running and using fop. Now I need some advice
on the best way to use it to create my report. It seems to me that a
table at the start of each page will work, but I have read that FOP has
so much other capability, that tables are seldom needed. Let me briefly
describe my design, and someone may give me some feedback.
On the contrary, I think that tables are one of most important features
in XSL-FO.
Survey participants have evaluated automobiles by sitting in different
positions and answering 15 questions - either voting for 0 - 10, or
marking an image of the car. Then for each question, they can also offer
text comments. The report will summarize and assemble this data. For
various cars, there are one, two or three rows, always a left seat and a
right seat. The votes are tabulated in histograms, and the image marks
are put onto svg images of the car, one for each question and position.
A four seat car would have 60. Comments are presented as a bulleted list.
The report would start one page for each seating row, with two columns,
left column for the left seat and right column for the right seat. The
page title states the car name and the specific question. The column
heading states the position. Then the column would have either a
histogram or a car image, followed below by a bulleted list of comments.
Same thing repeated on the right column for the right seating position.
The number of respondents may be different for each position.
The data is available as an xml document. I will write an xslt
stylesheet to transform the data to fo.
I can see how to do this with a table, much like how I could do it with
html. The car images and histograms would be in-line svg documents.
Is there a better approach?
If I understand your explanations, probably not. I can't think of any.
Tables offer you a lot of possibilities for layout. Please post an
example when you have something to show. It's always interesting so see
what people do with XSL-FO/FOP. Good luck!
Jeremias Maerki
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