Visual2PDF - fast PDF REPORTS and FORMS for applications

As you will see, the application interface is very simple and the design options are very common to other graphical design applications.
The bellow image is the main window with an document oppened. It is an invoice and a bill.

Draw objects: To draw objects on the form document you can choose an object from the second toolbar which you can see in the image bellow.

Format objects: You can format objects from the third toolbar and from the object properties window.

- left square- change the font color or the border color, right square -change the background color.

- align the texts in text objects, label objects or in table cell. This apply to the selected objects

- change the background color, background type (Transparent, Solid, Diagonal, ...), border style and border thickeness of an object: rectangle, circle, table cells. It applies even for texts and labels but only if "grafic" property is checked. This applies for all selected objects.

You can unlimited Undo and Redo, Copy, Cut, Paste object or selected objects, delete object or selected objects.

Press Slect button to select, resize, move objects. When you want to edit the objects this button have to be pressed. The seond button in the image is for properties, if this button is pressed then properties windows will appear.

Show objects - when you click show objects in the popup menu, the labels and text boxes will be shown as rectangles like in the below image.

There are many options for adding rows, adding columns, split cells, split columns, delete rows, delete columns, move rows, move columns, setting cell background color and ather usefull options which can be found by right clicking on a cell.

How to use .xpf files to generate dynamic PDF files?

To generate a PDF file and to dynamically fill the fields, you have to use showpdf.php and visual2pdf.php

showpdf.php is an example of how to declare, transmit the texts, change settings and generate PDF

<?php
//the path to TCPDF classes - we recomend to have all the time the latest TCPDF release
require_once('../../tcpdf/config/lang/eng.php');
require_once('../../tcpdf/tcpdf.php');
//the path to the class that reads XPF and generates PDF
require_once('visual2pdf.php');

// create new PDF document
$pdf = new visual2pdf(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);

//properties of the PDF
$pdf->SetCreator('NB-GENERALSOFT SRL');
$pdf->SetAuthor('Narcis Bodea');
$pdf->SetTitle('Visual2PDF form');
$pdf->SetSubject('test');
$pdf->SetKeywords('VISUAL2PDF, PDF, example, test, guide');
$pdf->SetDisplayMode ('fullpage');
$pdf->setPrintHeader(false);
$pdf->setPrintFooter(false);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(false, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM); //if the form is multipage then set TRUE, otherwise it is better to set false

//load the XPF document, in this example it's path is transmited with $_GET
$pdf->loadForm($_GET['f']);

//$pdf->perpage=2; //setting perpage you can overide the number of the forms on the page

//setting the margins for the form, you will move entire content to the (positive values) left, top, (negative values) right, bottom
//the margin units are in mm

$pdf->topmargin=0;
$pdf->leftmargin=0;

$pdf->adjustX=0; // moves the entire content to the left or to the right, it is added to existing margins, you can let the user to set this parameter to make the text to be printed on absolute positions on a pre-printed paper form
$pdf->adjustY=0; // moves the entire content to the top or to the bottom, it is added to existing margins, you can let the user to set this parameter to make the text to be printed on absolute positions on a pre-printed paper form

//$pdf->changeLayout('L'); //you can change the layout of the form to landscape (L) or portrait (P) , the default value is that which is set in the design

//this is an example of how to set the printer alignament for a laser printer wich load the paper from the center

$pdf->portrait_vertical_align="top";
$pdf->portrait_horizontal_align="center";
$pdf->landscape_vertical_align="center";
$pdf->landscape_horizontal_align="right";

//$pdf->setBackground('printable',true); //you can override the setting for printing background image,

//populate the sources
//for the text obects with source property set, the text will be replaced with tyhe string that you set for each source

$pdf->sources['Numar']='1234'; // 'Numar' is the source name and '1234' is the value which will be filled
$pdf->sources['Suma in cifre']='150.000,56';

//to populate a body of a table
// you can choose which row will be added to the body
//in the bellow example, we have 2 rows, one for odd (impar) and one for even (par), as you can see
// we use one row for even rows and other row for odd rows, they have different backgrounds and fonts
// the body rows must be created in design and you can chose by it's name which row will be generated and filled with sources
// word Factura is the name of the table

for ($i=1;$i<70;$i++) {
if ($i%2!=0) {
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['rowname']='impar';
}
else{
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['rowname']='par';
}
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['nrcrt']=$i;
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['denumire']="Product number {$i}";
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['um']="buc";
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['pu']="100";
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['tva']="5";
$pdf->tablesources['Factura'][$i]['valoare']="19";
}
//here is a line example that fills a cell on a footer row, the cells on header and footer rows will be filled like in the line bellow
$pdf->tablesources['Factura']['total']='20000 RON';

//set a property of an object retrieved by it's name, you can change any attribute of any object using it's name to identify, if there are many objects with the same name -> the attribute will be changed for all objects
$pdf->setObjectByName('test','text','blabla');

//here we set some hidden objects to be shown, hidden attribute is very usefull if you want to display and print an canceled invoice for example, you change the hidden attribute when the invoice is canceled. Example: you draw to diagonale lines on the invoice and put a big text on the center with text CANCELED, you give to all objects the name canceled and attribute hidden to true, when an user cancel an invoice you can set $pdf->setObjectByName('canceled','hidden','0');

$pdf->setObjectByName('anulata','hidden','0');
$pdf->setObjectByName('chitantaanulata','hidden','0');

//if you encounter TCPDF ERROR: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF file you have to set obclean to TRUE, to clean the headers
$pdf->obclean=false;

//if you want to see the sources of the texts in the annotations, set this to TRUE
$pdf->showannotations=false;
//micfont represents a value which will reduce the fonts sizes
$pdf->micfont=1;
//populate will pupulate the texts with sources
$pdf->populate();
//this generates the PDF, if you call with a TRUE parameter ($pdf->WriteForm(true)), you will see the name of the sources for any text field, displayed with red color
$pdf->WriteForm();
// ---------------------------------------------------------

Visual2PDF - HELP

We will put more explanations and examples on the forum

Design

How to design the documents?

How to use .xpf files to generate dynamic PDF files?

Class for generating dynamic PDF files using TCPDF classes in PHP