...My html-based representation is pretty good, but I would like to provide a feature to convert this summary�information to a .pdf file which can be distributed, printed, archived, etc.� I'm using the Velocity templating engine for the page generation, and I'm not interested in converting the whole site to XML.� My goal is just an on-the-fly .pdf generation of this one summary document...
Cocoon includes two PDF generation tools: FOP and iText.
Briefly said, FOP uses the XSL-FO standard to describe documents whereas iText uses its own page description language but is "lighter" to run. Both take XML as input though, so you will need to convert your data at some point.
The best thing would be to study the corresponding samples (use the "blocks with samples" link from the Cocoon samples page) and/or the HTML/PDF generation How-To found at http://cocoon.apache.org/2.1/howto/howto-html-pdf-publishing.html (not yet up to date for 2.1 on the website, please ask here if you have problem running the examples).
�...Is Cocoon overkill or even appropriate for this sort of application?...
It is certainly appropriate, but you should study the samples before making a decision.
...Can anyone provide any case studies or real-world examples of it's implementation?
I think the most widespread use of Cocoon today is on-the-fly publishing of data in various formats ("multi-channel publishing"), but the "interactive webapp" parts of the framework are progressing very quickly and will probably take the front stage soon.
-- Bertrand Delacretaz independent consultant, Lausanne, Switzerland http://cvs.apache.org/~bdelacretaz/
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