[Gnue-dev] Re: GNUe Reports and xmlns, oh my!

[Stanley A. Klein]

At 02:15 AM 3/21/2002 -0500, Jason Cater <address@hidden> wrote:


>  5. This leaves the door open for the Reports Engine to "proxy"
>     output formatting logic. In other words, this would allow, if
>     we ever so desired, to write a PDF (or HTML or TeX) formatting
>     engine (instead of an external XSLT script) for reports of type
>     GNUe:Reports:Standard that the engine could load.  Instead of
>     physically creating an XML output stream, it creates a stream
>     of events to this engine, which would understand the xmlns
>     tags.  Or, more to the point, the engine would send a
>     "reportheader" event to the GNUe:Reports:Standard:PDF
>     formatting engine, which would be creating a "PDF" output
>     stream.
>
>     I'm not suggesting that we pursue the "formatting engine", but
>     just suggesting that the possibility would always be there
>     without much recoding. Of course, I never said that I won't
>     officially suggest this later on. :)
>
>So, unless someone gives me a compelling reason otherwise, this is the
>approach I want to take.
>

I've also given this issue some thought.  I have been trying to figure out
how three applications would be approached:  (1) how to produce 3-up
mailing labels from a GNUe database, (2) how to produce an invoice (or
other report) in GNUe fully formatted with a letterhead, and (3) how to
produce a file for creating mail-merged letters from a GNUe database.  

The solution I've been thinking about is to get the GNUe Reports output
into a format appropriate for one of the word processors that use XML as
their native format.  These include AbiWord and OpenOffice.  I think
AbiWord is GPL, so we could actually link directly to the appropriate
AbiWord code for processing and printing without needing to leave GNUe and
separately start AbiWord.  I haven't checked the GPL compatibility status
of the OpenOffice license, but there would be no licensing difficulties in
generating a file that it could separately process and print.

For the labels, StarOffice has built-in formats for various types of Avery
label stock, so I would expect OpenOffice to have the formats also.  There
is every reason to expect AbiWord to eventually also have the formats.
What would be needed is the capability for including the label formatting
data with the GNUe Reports output.  

An invoice with letterhead would involve preparing the letterhead in
AbiWord and having GNUe Reports output the AbiWord XML together with the
invoice data and printing the resulting file from AbiWord.

Similar considerations are involved in doing the mail-merge.

I haven't studied Jason's proposed approach to see how it would affect my
suggested solution to these three applications, but I think examples such
as these should be taken into account in formulating an overall approach to
formatting under GNUe Reports.


Stan Klein