Re: Question on PL/SQL & PDF

There are two ways to write to and read from a pdf file: (1) using fdf, a subset of pdf, which fills in pdf form information, and (2) dynamically generating and parsing the entire pdf file.

The first approach is actually easy and it requires studying the syntax of an fdf file. You might subscribe to the an email discussion list at http://www.pdfzone.com/resources/discussions.html for more information. Adobe's home site, http://www.adobe.com , also has pdf specifications and other information. You will also need Adobe's Acrobat Exchange (about $225) to create pdf files and experiment with fdf.

Although Adobe provides an fdf toolkit for various languages, I don't believe they have one for plsql. This is actually not a bad thing, because constructing dynamic fdf is as easy as constructing html once you know the syntax. So I would recommend that you build the one or two page plsql package that would help you format the fdf file yourself.

If this interests you, send me an email and I will forward a response I sent to one of the pdf form email lists detailing the basic structure of an fdf file.

The second approach is more challenging and I have only experimented with it. There are libraries from Thomas Merz, and perhaps others, that will allow you to dynamically generate pdf files: http://www.pdflib.com/ . You may be able to use his shared library through Oracle 8's external procedures.

Frank Hubeny

Sriram Padi wrote:

> Hi,
> We are looking for PL/SQL packages or sample code to extract/write
> informationfrom/to a PDF file.
>
> Thanks
>
> Sriram
Received on Wed Mar 01 2000 - 00:00:00 CST