Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

PDF::API2 (Creating PDF files)

16 views
Skip to first unread message

Jasper2000

unread,
Mar 10, 2010, 7:05:59 PM3/10/10
to
Hi,

I'm creating PDF's on the fly, with Perl 5.8, using PDF::API2.

I have no problem with most of it, albeit there's a bit of a learning
curve with creating PDFs, but I can't figure out how to insert a URL
with anchor text.

i.e. It's easy enough to insert a URL as text, and the PDF will
recognize it as a URL and make it clickable when viewed in Acrobat.
However, I would like to be able to insert a URL, such as http://www.test.com
yet have the link text be something like "Test Site" (with the actual
URL not visible).

I know it's possible to do it with PDF::API2::Simple, but the rest of
my script is already done using PDF::API2, so I hope to keep it that
way if possible.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, since there seems to be a
bit of a lack of good documentation for this particular module.

Thanks!

Ben Morrow

unread,
Mar 10, 2010, 7:31:52 PM3/10/10
to

Quoth Jasper2000 <hel...@gmail.com>:

>
> I'm creating PDF's on the fly, with Perl 5.8, using PDF::API2.
>
> I have no problem with most of it, albeit there's a bit of a learning
> curve with creating PDFs, but I can't figure out how to insert a URL
> with anchor text.
>
> i.e. It's easy enough to insert a URL as text, and the PDF will
> recognize it as a URL and make it clickable when viewed in Acrobat.
> However, I would like to be able to insert a URL, such as http://www.test.com
> yet have the link text be something like "Test Site" (with the actual
> URL not visible).
>
> I know it's possible to do it with PDF::API2::Simple, but the rest of
> my script is already done using PDF::API2, so I hope to keep it that
> way if possible.

If you look at the source for PDF::API2::Simple, you will find that it
uses

@rect = $self->_render_text_at( $text_obj, $text, $x, $y, $align );
$annotation = $self->current_page->annotation;

$annotation->rect( @rect );
$annotation->url( $url );

where $self->current_page is the page currently being written and
$self->_render_text_at add a piece of text and returns its bounding box.
->annotation is documented in PDF::API2::Page, and the returned object
is a PDF::API2::Annotation.

Ben

Jasper2000

unread,
Mar 10, 2010, 10:15:14 PM3/10/10
to
> If you look at the source for PDF::API2::Simple, you will find that it
> uses
>
> @rect = $self->_render_text_at( $text_obj, $text, $x, $y, $align );
> $annotation = $self->current_page->annotation;
>
> $annotation->rect( @rect );
> $annotation->url( $url );
>
> where $self->current_page is the page currently being written and
> $self->_render_text_at add a piece of text and returns its bounding box.
> ->annotation is documented in PDF::API2::Page, and the returned object
> is a PDF::API2::Annotation.
>
> Ben


That's great ... thanks very much for your pointer.

0 new messages