RE: "report" generation with PHP

There's more than one way to skin a cat - if not directly from PHP to PDF, why not PHP to a .TeX LaTeX file, then use exec() to run latex and dvi2pdf on it. No license restrictions there that I know of, and you can get some very nice results with LaTeX. -Andy > -----Original Message----- > From: Matthew Garman [mailto:garman@uiuc.edu] > Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 4:00 AM > To: php-general@lists.php.net > Subject: "report" generation with PHP > > > > Hello: > > I wrote an small web application that interfaces a Microsoft Access > database. The database is fairly small and simple: it is a listing of > employees, their phone number(s) and their department. My interface > allows folks to view the phone list, search for a name, list by > department, etc., and allows certain users to update the phone book (add > employees, change phone numbers, etc). It's a fairly "typical" phonebook > application. > > The Access database has a macro in it that allows for the generation of a > report. The report is a nicely formatted listing of all the employees and > their phone numbers, grouped by department. Everybody fits on one page. > The whole purpose of this report is to be printable, and so that the one > page phone list can be distributed throughout the factory. > > Now I want to be able to generate this report from the web. It doesn't > have to use Access (and I would prefer that it didn't, so I can convert to > MySQL). But I don't know of a nice (and easy!) way to generate such a > report. Using HTML tables isn't acceptable---when you print, you still > get the header and footer that the browser adds (and it's unacceptable to > have everyone modify their browser's setup). Furthermore, the printable > list has to look as close as possible to the original, because if I start > changing formats, people will get upset. > > So I'm not really too sure where to start on this one. If anyone could > offer some suggestions, and point me in the right direction, it would be > sincerely appreciated! > > Thanks, > Matt > > -- > Matt Garman, garman@uiuc.edu > "I'll tip my hat to the new constitution, Take a bow for the new > revolution > Smile and grin at the change all around, Pick up my guitar and play > Just like yesterday, Then I'll get on my knees and pray..." > -- Pete Townshend/The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again" > > > >