Mike Buchanan wrote:
It does get frustrating when I
can pump in a few hundred lines of code a day but then it sometimes
takes two or three days to figure out how to do just one function.
I studied architecture.
As a developer I'm a Mies Van der Rohe adept: Less is More.
I'd rather spend a week doing nothing, thinking about how to
solve a problem, and then code 100 lines solving the problem
in one day. Then code a 1000 lines a day for two weeks, ending
up with a solution that is almost impossible to maintain.
In the book, page 284, it notes that drawing lines and shapes is called
"constructing and painting paths". So, what is a path?
On the same page, it says: "The first thing you need to know
is how to draw lines and shapes; in PDF terminology this is
called constructing and painting paths."
I understood it
to be setting a starting position in a table cell and then placing
something there.
No, it's about drawing lines and shapes.
The example you returned to me does the same as the
example in the book, it simply draws a line through the table cell.
Yes, because I hadn't the faintest idea of what you
were trying to achieve.
So
you moveTo() a starting point and then lineTo() a destination point to
draw the line. This I understand. Now I need to moveTo() a starting
point and draw the text, not a straight line.
So you want to draw text instead of lines and shapes?
Then you should move on to chapter 11 (p344):
"The text state is a subset of the graphics state."
Simply put, we need to overlay several table columns with text while
still showing all of the borders and coloring of the table columns under
the text. In effect, this is like printing over a preprinted form, if
you catch my drift.
See the attachment.
Of course, showTextAligned DOESN'T WRAP the text string.
Maybe you'll want to calculate the width of the String first,
and then change the font accordingly. Or you may want to use
ColumnText to position the text correctly; I don't know...
It all depends on your requirements. And it's all explained
in the book. I'm not using any special methods that aren't
mentioned in the book here.
Maybe I should start thinking about a 3 day course on iText.
It would be fun to teach how to use iText, and it would surely
lower the threshold for future users...
best regards,
Bruno
package test;
//Test overlaying multiple PDF table cells with text
import java.io.*;
import com.lowagie.text.*;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.*;
class TextOverlay {
private static Document doc;
private static float[] colWidths;
private static boolean colorSw = false;
public static void main (String [] args) throws Exception {
doc = new Document (PageSize.LETTER.rotate());
PdfWriter.getInstance (doc, new FileOutputStream ("test_overlay.pdf"));
doc.open ();
float[] colSizes = { 72f, 18f, 140f, 95f, 30f };
colWidths = colSizes;
createTable();
doc.close ();
}
private static void createTable() throws Exception {
// Define an inner and outer table.
PdfPTable outerTable = new PdfPTable(1);
outerTable.setTotalWidth(355f);
outerTable.setLockedWidth(true);
PdfPTable innerTable = new PdfPTable(5);
innerTable.setTotalWidth(colWidths);
innerTable.setLockedWidth(true);
// Load the inner table with every other cell colored
Paragraph innerPara = new Paragraph();
PdfPCell innerCell = new PdfPCell(innerPara);
innerPara.setLeading(11f);
innerPara.add (new Phrase (" "));
innerCell.setFixedHeight(15f);
for(int i = 0;i < 5;i++) {
if(colorSw)
{
colorSw = false;
innerCell.setBackgroundColor(new CMYKColor(.05f, .01f, .00f,
.03f));
}
else
{
colorSw = true;
innerCell.setBackgroundColor(new CMYKColor(0f, 0f, 0f, 0f));
}
innerTable.addCell(innerCell);
}
PdfPCell outerCell = new PdfPCell(innerTable);
outerCell.setCellEvent(new DoCellEvent());
outerCell.setBorder(Rectangle.NO_BORDER);
outerTable.addCell(outerCell);
doc.add(outerTable);
}
}
class DoCellEvent implements PdfPCellEvent {
protected BaseFont bf;
public DoCellEvent() throws DocumentException, IOException {
bf = BaseFont.createFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.WINANSI,
BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
}
public void cellLayout(PdfPCell cell, Rectangle position, PdfContentByte[]
canvases)
{
PdfContentByte cb = canvases[PdfPTable.TEXTCANVAS];
String commentStr = "This comment in the outer table will extend over
multiple cells in the inner table";
cb.beginText();
cb.setFontAndSize(bf, 9);
cb.showTextAligned(Element.ALIGN_LEFT, commentStr, position.left() + 3,
position.bottom() + 3, 0);
cb.endText();
}
}-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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