django, reportlab and basedoctemplate | simpledoctemplate

[Sven Richter]

Hi everybody,

i am looking for a way to get BaseDocTemplate from the reportlab
library working, connected with a httpresponse.
I found the documentation for a simple reportlab page, using canvas.
But to me it seems, that i need more options than basic Canvas offers.
Like a page header or footer, tables continuing over pages etc.
I have not found a working example to use httpresponse:

response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')
response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=somefilename.pdf'

in conjunction with:

BaseDocTemplate('basedoc.pdf',showBoundary=1)

So if somebody could provide some working code, or a hint to
repository or an application with some working code, i'd really
appreciate that.

Greetings
Sven

[Paulo Almeida]

I'm using Platypus (part of reportlab) to generate pdfs without micromanagement of Canvas elements. reportlab's documentation was very helpful to learn how to work with Paragraph, Table, Image, etc. Some code:

# views.py

@login_required

def view_pdf(request, experiment_id):

    experiment = get_object_or_404(Experiment.objects.filter(pk=experiment_id))

    response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')

    filename = slugify(experiment.title) + '.pdf'

    response['Content-Disposition'] = 'filename=' + filename

    generate_pdf([experiment], response)

    return response

# functions.py

def generate_pdf(experiments, output):

    doc = SimpleDocTemplate(output, pagesize=A4)

    Document = []

    for experiment in experiments:

        Document.extend(pdf_elements(experiment))

    doc.build(Document)

pdf_elements is a function that adds bits and pieces... This is just an excerpt:

def pdf_elements(experiment):

    styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

    Document = [Paragraph(escape(experiment.title), styles["Title"])]

    Document.append(Spacer(1,50))

    date = unicode(experiment.date.strftime("%B %d, %Y"))

    Document.append(Paragraph("Acquired on " + date, styles["Normal"]))

    date_now = unicode(datetime.now().strftime("%B %d, %Y"))

    Document.append(Paragraph("PDF created on " + date_now, styles["Normal"]))

    Document.append(Spacer(1,10))

    return Document

Read the Platypus documentation for many more elements and options.

These are my reportlab imports:

from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer, TableStyle

from reportlab.platypus import KeepTogether

from reportlab.platypus import Table as Platypus_Table

from reportlab.platypus import Image as Platypus_Image

from reportlab.lib import colors

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import A4

from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet

- Paulo

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[Sven Richter]

Great, thank you very much, this got me started. However, its not
working yet. This is the code i have right now:

def generate_pdf(request):

response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')
response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=somefilename.pdf'

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()
Document = [Paragraph('rd', styles["Title"])]
Document.append(Spacer(1,50))

date_now = unicode(datetime.now().strftime("%B %d, %Y"))
Document.append(Paragraph("PDF created on " + date_now, styles["Normal"]))
Document.append(Spacer(1,10))

doc.build(Document)
return response

But instead of showing the pdf i get the error:

Exception Type: IndexError
Exception Value: list index out of range

I cannot imagine what may be wrong there? From my point of view it
should work like that?

Greetings
Sven

[HARRY POTTRER]

On Mar 30, 12:08 pm, Sven Richter <sver...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> So if somebody could provide some working code, or a hint to
> repository or an application with some working code, i'd really
> appreciate that.
>
> Greetings
> Sven

You can look through my code: http://github.com/nbv4/flightloggin/blob/master/pdf/pdf.py

and an example of some output:

http://flightlogg.in/chris/print.pdf

[palmeida]

Is that all your code? I don't see a line like this (from my
generate_pdf function):

doc = SimpleDocTemplate(response, pagesize=A4)

That's what links the 'response' variable to the output of the
doc.build function. But I don't think that should be what's causing
the IndexError, because you don't assign doc to anything. It should
just complain that doc is not defined. For what it's worth, the pdf
generating part of your code works and generates a pdf (if you include
the 'doc = ...' line above)

- Paulo

> > On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 5:08 PM, Sven Richter <sver...@googlemail.com>

[Sven Richter]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 8:21 PM, palmeida <igcbioin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is that all your code? I don't see a line like this (from my
> generate_pdf function):
>
> doc = SimpleDocTemplate(response, pagesize=A4)

I missed that one out of my example. You're right.

But it doesnt generate a pdf like that, it just complains about that IndexError.

Greetings
Sven

[Paulo Almeida]

Ok, that is not easy to debug with so little information. Is the IndexError in views.py? Maybe there is a mistake in urls.py, caused by adding the url for the generate_pdf view?

- Paulo

Greetings
Sven

[Sven Richter]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 9:08 PM, Paulo Almeida
<igcbioin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, that is not easy to debug with so little information. Is the IndexError
> in views.py? Maybe there is a mistake in urls.py, caused by adding the url
> for the generate_pdf view?

Hm, its indeed hard. I really dont know what that Error will tell me.
My Application is a very basic one. Up to now i do everything in the
admin interface. The only url defined is the one to view the pdf file:

urls.py:
urlpatterns = patterns('',
# Example:
# (r'^eiwomisa/', include('eiwomisa.foo.urls')),

# Uncomment the admin/doc line below and add 'django.contrib.admindocs'
# to INSTALLED_APPS to enable admin documentation:
# (r'^admin/doc/', include('django.contrib.admindocs.urls')),

# Uncomment the next line to enable the admin:
(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
(r'^project/task/', include('project.task.urls')),
(r'^office/job/', include('office.job.urls')),
)

offic/job/urls.py:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *

urlpatterns = patterns('office.job.views',
(r'/offer/generate/pdf/$', 'generate_pdf', '',
'office_job_generate_offer_pdf'),
)

and here is my views.py:

def generate_pdf(request):
response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')
response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=somefilename.pdf'

doc = BaseDocTemplate(filename=response,pagesize=A4)

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()
Document = [Paragraph('rd', styles["Title"])]
Document.append(Spacer(1,50))
date_now = unicode(datetime.now().strftime("%B %d, %Y"))
Document.append(Paragraph("PDF created on " + date_now, styles["Normal"]))
Document.append(Spacer(1,10))
doc.build(Document)

I have tried the same "setup" with the canvas.Canvas example from the
django documentation, and it worked. All i changed here is from canvas
to document.

Greetings
Sven

[Sven Richter]

Hm, what makes me wonder is this one:
IndexError at /office/job//admin/job/offer/generate/pdf/
This is a url that is not accessible, cause it does not exist, at
least i never defined it in any urls.py.
Maybe thats the problem? Django tries to access a url which doesnt exist?

Greetings
Sven

[Sven Richter]

Shame on me. The problem was that i mixed SimpleDocTemplate (which the
examples were based on), with BaseDocTemplate, which i used. And
BaseDocTemplate needs an extra PageTemplate defined. So this code
basically works:

def generate_pdf(request):
response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')
response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=somefilename.pdf'

template = PageTemplate('normal', [Frame(2.5*cm, 2.5*cm, 15*cm,
25*cm, id='F1')])
doc = BaseDocTemplate(filename=response,pagesize=A4,pageTemplates=template)

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

Document = [Paragraph('rd', styles["Title"])]
Document.append(Spacer(1,50))

doc.build(Document)

return response

Thanks all for the help!
Sven

[Paulo Almeida]

Cool, you're all set then. Documentation on Platypus should help you do what you want. I know it can do tables flow between pages, repeating the header in the beginning of each page if desired, and I'm sure there are ways of creating headers and footers, although I have never tried them.

Best,
Paulo