How to create dynamic Graphs into a PDF?

mmoranuk

I'm trying to dynamically output graphical data into a pdf from MySQL.

I'm happy with the PDF creation of text using ezpdf.
I'm happy with creating my graphs to a web page (currently generated to a web page using imagefilledrectangle() and imageline() etc. to generate dynamic .png file).

I can't see an easy way to combine the two. As I see it, I have two options:

Create the .png file into a temp directory, use addPngFromFile() to insert into the pdf, then delete the temp file.
Rewrite the current code to generate the graphs using filledRectangle() and Line() from the pdf lib.

Either way is not ideal. Am I missing something else? Is there an easier way to do this? Any tools? Free or paid?

Thanks for any help. Mark.

mmoranuk

Hi - no responses so far. Just to update you, I have gone down the route of option 2.

Seems to work so far except for one thing...I'm trying to dynamically provide the starting position for lines and if the values are too low then the lines start from completely the wrong position (see attached JPEG). The code is:

$responses = array(1=>'12', 2=>'9', 3=>'19', 4=>'44', 5=>'1');  

krsort($responses);  

$size_multiplier = 5;    

foreach($responses as $key => $score) {
  $score = $score*$size_multiplier;
  $pdf->ezText("The array value is:" .$score,12,array= 'Justification'=>'left'));
  $pdf->addText($startpos, $barpos,12,"$key");   	
  $pdf->line($startpos+10,$barpos,$score,$barpos);
  $barpos = $barpos+$gap;  

  }

This is driving me nuts - have I done something stupid?

mmoranuk

Ignore my previous post - I've just fixed it.

I was thinking that the value from the array was a length, rather than a page position. I've now changed it to add the array value onto a fixed starting position on the page.