Multiple PDF Files

Question

Hi,
I am new to Documaker. I got the initial setup done and am able to generate a single PDF file from an XML. In our system, each XML file corresponds to each PDF generated. I am just wondering how to set the INI file for accepting Multiple XML input files and generates Multiple output PDF files. Also, is there anyway to name the generated PDF files from some DAL script or assign any sequence to it.
Thanks
Raza

Answer 1

877669 wrote:
Hi,
I am new to Documaker. I got the initial setup done and am able to generate a single PDF file from an XML. In our system, each XML file corresponds to each PDF generated. I am just wondering how to set the INI file for accepting Multiple XML input files and generates Multiple output PDF files. Also, is there anyway to name the generated PDF files from some DAL script or assign any sequence to it.
Thanks
RazaHi Raza,
Please reference the documentation Using the PDF Print Driver for your particular version of Documaker. See the section entitled Setting up the PDF Print Driver and subsection Using the PDF Print Driver with Genprint.
You can set up the print driver in a number of ways, depending on what you're trying to achieve in your output:
- If you can have multiple transactions in your XML file and want to generate a PDF for each transaction, use the MultiFilePrint option.
- If you can have only one transaction in your XML file, you don't need to do anything different - just configure the print driver as shown.
- If you can have multiple transactions in your XML file, and you want to generate a single PDF containing all transactions, see the sub section Generating a Single PDF
You also mentioned the configuration for accepting multiple XML input files - see the documentation Working with XML Files your for particular version of Documaker. See the section Using XML Extract Files. In particular you'll want to use the rule XMLFileExtract, which assumes that your input to Documaker is a flat file list which contains the filenames of the XML extract files you want to use. Your other option is to concatenate all the XML files into a single file (note that this includes concatenating the XML headers, which means this concatenated file will become an invalid XML file, but that is ok). If the latter option is what you're using, then you want to use the UseXMLExtract rule. For more information on the setup, see the Documaker Rule documentation for each rule.
If I am correct in my assumption that you have one transaction in your XML file, you will probably be using the XMLFileExtract rule in conjunction with the MultiFilePrint option.
For overriding the PDF file naming convention you can use the DAL in-line function as shown in the Generating a Single PDF section. The example illustrates how you would insert the value of a variable into the file name.
< BatchPrint >
PDF = ~HEXTIME .PDF
In this case, the variable HEXTIME is preceded by a ~, and is followed by a space. You can use multiple variables - e.g. +~KEY1 ~KEY2 ~KEYID ~HEXTIME .PDF+, just make sure you follow each variable with a space. The system includes a number of built-in variables, but you can reference any variable that you've created as a transactional or global GVM.
Hope this helps. If you need further clarification please respond.
-Andy
Edited by: Andy Little on Aug 9, 2011 3:32 PM