it's a tough one (please read it)

Anon

Hey guys,

The question I have is a toughie. First let me give some background.

I am almost finished with a billing program for my department. Program generates billilngs from database. What I would like to do is to make one entry from database appear only on one page. There are 406 distinct billings to be generated, and each one has to be one page.

Is there any way to use PHP or JavaScript to adjust a page, so that format stays the way I described it above.

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated,

cordex

What about CSS?

kparker

This sounds like a job for PDF--do you have those libraries available?

Anon

why not just select each individually from your database and display them one at a time?

Anon

Ben,

Thanks for reply. What do you suggest? How can CSS measure my data against the length of the page, and how can my PHP script use this info to make sufficient breaks or whatever so that next record appears on the next page.

Anon

Sure that's possible, but billings are generated each month - so it is a repetitive task. There are 406 seperate billings statements, so each month I'll have to make 406 clicks, another 406 clicks to print. It is mundane and because of the amount of billings errors can result.

Anon

Kirk,

Thanks for reply. I do not have pdflib installed,but I can get it at pdflib.org as long as PDF can get the job done. I am not familiar with pdflib, but I can learn in a snap.

Are you sure that php can use pdflib to format my data so it is one database record per single page?

Anon

sorry I didn't read your question first to begin with.

but yeah, I'd recommend you use phps functionality with pdflib for this - will be ideal for your needs.

kparker

Sure, printing one statement per page is easy. The hard part is getting the document created in the first place. To use either version of the pdf libraries, you have to have some concept of pdf and postscript--or even having written some direct HP PCL language before will be a help. One further caution is that either third-party library provider wants licensing fees if your application is for commercial use. I haven't looked recently so I don't know if that means "for resale" or whether your production of invoices would qualify.

cordex

CSS can absolutely position an element. You'd have to figure out the size of a page and position your elements to fit.

Aren't you going about this in a little round-about fashion? PHP is for web development, it's not designed for paper-based page design. There are programs that interface with databases for just that purpose.

-Ben

Anon

Sure it does,

Kirk suggested using pdflib and php has function that starts new page using pdf_lib library.

Using other programs is complicated, because I have to know which programs are an option for my task, than I'll have to interface them with php, which probably won't work.

Changing my program is a project suicide since I've already written more than 4000 lines of code.

I am familiar with CSS relative and absolute positioning, but the trick is to make information fit only on one page, taking multiple resolutions in consideration. And that's a tough one.

I appreciate ya'lls help, and I think that I'll have to go with pdflib. Seems to me that with this library all I have to do is extend my program instead of modifying it.

Di.

lawnmowerman

Instead of manually clicking, why don't you use JavaScript to print the page ( using window.print() ) and a META tag to refresh the page. The page could increment to the next record each time it loads (pass a variable).

This way, you'd go to the first print page (perhaps called print_bills.php4) and it will default to account 0 (or whatever), JavaScript will print the page, the browser will refresh (and call print_bills.php4?account=1 or similar) and the process will continue until no more accounts are left.

-Rich

Anon

Rich,

Thanks for your suggestions. The problem with this approach is window.print() method. Every time I try it - it pops a dialog box asking me if I want to print it. I looked around in config options of Netscape, yet I didn't find a way to disable it.

If you have any idea how to make window.print() method print without popping dialog box - please let me know.

Thanks,

lawnmowerman

Ah, didn't take the confirmation box into account.

How about this:

Have your script loop through all of the accounts and store the information into a variable, say, $out. Then, at the end of each account, mail the contents of $out to an email account only used for the billing process.

This would result in 400-some emails in that account's spool, but you should be able to select all of the e-mails and print them out at once, each one on their own page, but there will probably be some email headers (From and To and Subject) at the top. I'm not sure if that's a problem or not.

Just another thought.

-Rich

Anon

Guys,

Thanks a lot. I think I'll start fooling with phplib - seems to me it might turn out to be the best alternative.

Appreciate it,