Output data from flash to pdf
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- johnny_h
I'd like to output my data from my flash file (SWF)to either a pdf or I guess a text document would do at worst. Is there any solutions to do this or do I need to go server side to make this happen. Any clever people know the answer to this one?
- acescence0
swx, pdflib, and php
- johnny_h0
looked at these and they're a maybe. Anyone else any ideas?
- rabattski0
A maybe?!? Generating a PDF on the fly can, at this point, only be done with either PDFLib or a PDF class (such as R&OS's PDF class) and a php-like environment.
- rabattski0
Free:
http://www.ros.co.nz/pdf/Not-free:
http://www.pdflib.com/
- johnny_h0
A maybe as in if there is a better way not I'd like to explore the options. I know I can ouput PDFs from html with coldfusion as well and I was wondering if there was a way to export my data from flash into an html format which could be tagged by CF to output a PDF. But to be honest it's all theoretical maybes at the moment.
- rabattski0
A note about R&OS's PDF class, it can be very processor intensive to a level where the ISP is going to freak out depending on the complexity of the PDF you want to generate. Keep that in mind. The safest way is to go with PDFLib though.
What kind of data do you want to ouput from Flash? Basically you could output HTML data as well. It depends on how you construct it.
- johnny_h0
I'm constructing a diagnostic module. So basically some questions and answers. The output is user generated text variables. I'm trying to avoid the need to hook it into a database, so I really need an "on the fly" solution to export variables/user status into a format which would ultimately be a downloadable PDF(or at worst text document).
ISP is no problem as this is a part of an enterprise system hosted by a big hosting provider. Problem will be if I want them to set up a database this will go out of scope of the project.
I've also heard that php maybe an issue. So ideally, I'd look at ColdFusion, javascript, or "something else!!" Is there a way of exporting the data from flash into an xml file without going through a database? I've seen a php solution for creating a text file, but again, although I'm happy with php the client is hosting on a very strict platform which as far as I am aware is CF and possibly ASP .net (neither of which I am overly familiar with).
- rabattski0
Afaik Flash can't output anything directly to a file. It can output data but you need to direct that data to a php, asp, etc. script. Don't know about javascript though.
- johnny_h0
Yes. I feared/knew that was the case just wanted to see if anyone had any bright ideas or alternative "workaround" solutions.
The other thing I'm considering is the dataObject (flash cookie) thing and whether I can use that effectively to at the very least store data on the local machine.
- jledezma0
So what about Google Analytics' reports? Those graphics are rendered in Flash and then you ask for a PDF report where there are the line, pie charts and world map graphics (all vector) generated on the fly and sent by email.
I'd really like to do that, how do they do it?
- acescence0
google analytics uses this:
i've had success with this:
- spmitch0
worked with this before, does a pretty good job
alivePDF