Java – Using XFDF for pdf

javapdf-generation

Does anyone have experience using XFDF for pdf's? Are there any pitfalls in using this approach?

Step1 – I would need to create a pdf (adobe pro) with read only fields that are bound to elements in XML. This would act as a stencil to overly the data.

Step2 – Create custom classes that generate the XFDF XML string from data in our database.

Step3 – When a user requests a pdf, we simply would retrieve the data from the DB, construct the XFDF string and flush the string to the browser.

The main benefit to this architectural decision is that there is no need to store pdf's in the db or on hard drive. Additionally, I have seen many pdf generation implementations that use home grown batch processes that are buggy and only create another 'moving part' in an application.

Best Answer

I've been using XFDF for my projects and the technology proved to be reliable and sustainable. Firstly because it is XML, I could compress the XML and store them persistently with low foot-print. As Mark Storer has explained above, there are limitations that XFDF could not do that is support script. Should you require a library that does the XFDF/FDF field merge, you might give [nguyen][https://github.com/joneslee85/nguyen] gem a try.

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Java – How does the Java ‘for each’ loop work

for (Iterator<String> i = someIterable.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
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    System.out.println(item);
}

Note that if you need to use i.remove(); in your loop, or access the actual iterator in some way, you cannot use the for ( : ) idiom, since the actual iterator is merely inferred.

As was noted by Denis Bueno, this code works for any object that implements the Iterable interface.

Also, if the right-hand side of the for (:) idiom is an array rather than an Iterable object, the internal code uses an int index counter and checks against array.length instead. See the Java Language Specification.

Java – How to create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
      <configuration>
        <archive>
          <manifest>
            <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
          </manifest>
        </archive>
        <descriptorRefs>
          <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
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mvn clean compile assembly:single

Compile goal should be added before assembly:single or otherwise the code on your own project is not included.

See more details in comments.

Commonly this goal is tied to a build phase to execute automatically. This ensures the JAR is built when executing mvn install or performing a deployment/release.

<plugin>
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Best Answer

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Java – How does the Java ‘for each’ loop work

Java – How to create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven

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