FMWebschool PDF Module

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The FMStudio PDF Module allows FMStudio users to create powerful PDF documents from any FMStudio page with dynamic FileMaker objects.

Contents

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Version History

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Version 1.0.0 (October 23, 2007)

  • PDF module released with support for tables, dynamic images, and page breaks
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Version 1.0.2 (October 25, 2007)

  • Fixed a bug that incorrectly caused a table spanning multiple pages in Landscape mode to be printed in chunks over a dozen pages
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Quick Tutorial

  • Build an FMStudio page as you normally would
  • Select "Server Behaviors > Modules > PDF > Print Page as PDF"
  • Give your PDF a name, such as "myreport.pdf"
  • Click "Ok" and save the page, then click "Preview in Browser" to open up the page in your browser
  • You are done, when you will load the page it should display it in your PDF reader with the dynamic page data visible
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User Guide

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1. Printing the Page

  • Select "Server Behaviors > Modules > PDF > Print Page as PDF"
  • Give your PDF a name, such as "myreport.pdf"
  • The page will not be transformed into the PDF when it loads
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2. Adding Page Breaks

  • Place your cursor where you want the page break to be
  • Select "Server Behaviors > Modules > PDF > PDF Page Break"
  • This adds a "<newpage>" HTML tag which is transformed into a page break when the page is rendered into a PDF
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3. Important Limitations

There are a number of limitations in the current HTML2FPDF engine that ships with the PDF Module. Most of these limitations can be easily overcome with a tiny bit of HTML editing and some simplification of the page.

The current list of limitations is:

  • No support for table inside table, p inside p, div inside div
    • There aren't many cases where this is needed, the best way to resolve the issue is to simplify it into a single div or paragraph tag
    • Alternatively end the paragraph and start another tag if more advanced formatting in the middle of a paragraph is needed
  • HTML-entities not fully implemented
    • This might apply to some obscure characters, support will improve (please submit bug reports by email for these issues)
  • Lists with roman numerals indexation (e.g. "XIII.") are not correctly aligned
  • Using too many different font sizes/families might create bugs
  • Text wrapping around image does not work (nor around textarea or other form elements)
  • CSS is available to some HTML tags, but not all of them
  • Border painting of objects that span more than 1 page does not work (tables are excluded, their borders work just fine across pages)
  • Link color is always blue
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Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I customize the header and the footer?

Currently there is no easy way to customize the table and the footer, however it is a feature that we plan on introducing within the first few updates of this module.

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The table on my page will not center, what do I do?

Most likely your table has been placed in a Dreamweaver
tag for centering - this is not supported well by the conversion engine and the best alternative is to center the table itself.

Centering the table:

  1. Remove the "<div align="center">"</div>" from around your table using Code View
  2. Place your cursor inside the table
  3. On the bottom of the page above the property inspector you will see "html > table > tr > td" or something similar
  4. Click on the "table" in that line
  5. The whole table will be selected and in the property inspector you will see a setting for "Align", choose "Center" and save
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External Links

Retrieved from "http://www.fmwebschool.com/reference/FMWebschool_PDF_Module"
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