This is something I was searching for a very long time! (No, it’s not a html->pdf converter like dompdf or an expensive java solution like LiveCycle PDF Generator)
LiveDocx is the name of this great free web service! Get started here. It’s smooth, fast and very easy to use.
It allows developers to create word processing documents by combining user-defined Microsoft Word templates with data from disparate data sources, such as XML files and databases. It is typically used to create professional, print-ready word processing documents in DOCX, DOC, RTF and PDF. It’s easy and well proven.
Example scenario: Putting your CV online + your personal portfolio is nothing new anymore. But keeping it up to date and dynamic as a PDF….well… That’s something not much people can do. They just throw a bunch of static PDF & Word files online, and that’s about it. And after some months, when it becomes deprecated, they’ll have to overwrite the files again.
Imagine you’re a developer… yeah, imagine that…. your knowledge base is constantly changing. New technologies, languages, software packages, etc. So your PDF CV should always contain the latest content.
So what you do? You create a Word *.doc file in the layout and fonts you see fit. For every dynamic value, you’ll create a “MergeField”. (And use MS Word Bookmarks before and after the “MergeField”, if you want to use it as a sort of itemRenderer.)
Now by using the SOAP web service solution of Jonathan Maron (which did a great job by the way),
- You read in your Word template file
- The webservice maps all your dynamic data on the correct MergeFields.
- And finally translates all this together into a perfect PDF, PNG, etc. file.
- Done!
(I couldn’t get the Zend Framework solution to work, as it was only explained from a Linux point of view. It would be nice to see a tutorial for Windows OS users.)
