pdflib question

philosophia

hi all

this function
http://www3.medill.northwestern.edu/testapp/page.phps

takes variables pulled from a mysql db as arguments, and generates an html form submitter with the user's submitted answers prepopulated. the user can edit their answers, resubmit the page and view the form populated with their new answers.

towards the bottom of the page, i have a 'preview this page in pdf format' link, which takes variables from the page and generates a pdf version of the page with the user's answers prepopulated.

the pdf generation works well. i just have a couple of questions about pdf generation -

i've been trying to get the form to write the newly created pdf to a directory within the virtual directory that the app is located in, for organizational purposes, but have been having trouble. can anyone give me syntax tips on how to get this to work?
i just realized - if a user is on this page, then another clicks on this page, then mjp_pg1.php will be rewritten to reflect the information for the second user on the page, so if the first user subsequently hits the 'preview this page in pdf format', link, he'll see a pdf document with somebody else' information prepopulated! what's the best way to avoid this type of situation? i was thinking probably the best way would be to rename the pdf that's generated something like userid_mjp_pg1.pdf'...
is this the best way? if so, what would be the best way to code this?

thanks
philosophia

sarahk

I use a pdf class from http://www.ros.co.nz/pdf which is good. It lets me specify the file name when it's created and I could easily pass $userid."file.pdf"

Then, because you know the name of the pdf you tell the browser to display that file.

Post the main bits of your code for further advice.

========================
In my code (see example). In this I save the pdf before displaying it, very simple. In my case i'm saving it so I can email it and will then delete it. I don't want a server full of pdf files.

good luck

philosophia

thanks for responding.

i modified the pdf section of this function so that it writes to a directory called 'pdf', instead of the general directory where all my php files are in, this way i can set up a cron job to delete the contents of the 'pdf' directory on a nightly basis

here's how my pdf generating code looks now

http://www3.medill.northwestern.edu/testapp/pg1pdf.phps

what i'd like is, instead of generating a pdf called 'mjp_pg1.pdf', i'd like it to generate a pdf called $lastname.'mjp_pg1.pdf', that way it generates a unique file for each person who clicks on this page, so if 2 or more are on it at a time, i don't have to worry about somebody bringing up a pdf prepopulated with somebody else's information.

can you help me with the syntax on making a unique name for the pdf generated?

thanks

philosophia

edit: i downloaded pdf class - i am running a FreeBSD 4.6.1-RELEASE-p11 #2 machine, apache 1.324, php 4.2.1
is pdf class compatible with my setup?

sarahk

Here's the line where it all happens.

$fp = fopen($lastname."pdf/mjp_pg1.pdf", "w");

Now you can kick yourself 🙂

Remember that, like all files, a pdf is just a glorified text file and there will be a way of doing what you want.

philosophia

sarahk

would you recommend pdf class over standard pdf lib? what are the advantages?

thanks again
philosophia