[sclug] Form printouts from database

[David Kerrawn sclug]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sclug-bounces at sclug.org.uk [mailto:sclug-bounces at sclug.org.uk]On
> Behalf Of Peter Brewer
> Sent: 10 March 2006 17:17
> To: sclug at sclug.org.uk
> Subject: [sclug] Form printouts from database
> 
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> I'm wanting to create highly formatted output for printing (preferably 
> pdf) from a databas - e.g. invoices with logos and tables etc etc.  
> Previously I have used PHP and LaTeX for outputting printed reports from 
> a database but these have always been much more simple text based 
> documents.  Does anyone know a LaTeX package for doing more tightly 
> designed outputs?  Alternatively, is there any other way I can 
> achieve this?
> 
> I had (with great reservations) contemplated doing it in M$ Word with a 
> mail merge but the structure of the data is too complicated as it 
> contains a "one-to-many" table join.  Word can handle doing all the 
> name, address, ref numbers etc at the top of the invoice but I don't 
> think it can handle doing the repeated 'item, description, price' bits 
> in the main body.  Am I right?  As far as I'm aware Word can only manage 
> doing a mail-merge on a flat table or query from a database.
> 
> Anyway - any suggestions would be great and the more Linuxy the better!
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Pete
> 

You could try using Panda PDF (http://freshmeat.net/projects/panda/) which is has a C & C++ api or via PECL for a PHP API (http://pecl.php.net/package/panda).
Or even use Postscript as your page description language and convert to PDF if required.

Davek.