from genuserguide import *

Appendix1("ReportLab Demos")

disc("""In the subdirectories of $reportlab/demos$ there are a number of working examples showing

almost all aspects of reportlab in use.""")

heading2("""Odyssey""")

disc("""

The three scripts odyssey.py, dodyssey.py and fodyssey.py all take the file odyssey.txt

and produce PDF documents. The included odyssey.txt is short; a longer and more testing version

can be found at ftp://ftp.reportlab.com/odyssey.full.zip.

""")

eg("""

Windows

cd reportlab\\demos\\odyssey

python odyssey.py

start odyssey.pdf

Linux

cd reportlab/demos/odyssey

python odyssey.py

acrord odyssey.pdf

""")

disc("""Simple formatting is shown by the odyssey.py script. It runs quite fast,

but all it does is gather the text and force it onto the canvas pages. It does no paragraph

manipulation at all so you get to see the XML < & > tags.

""")

disc("""The scripts fodyssey.py and dodyssey.py handle paragraph formatting so you get

to see colour changes etc. Both scripts

use the document template class and the dodyssey.py script shows the ability to do dual column

layout and uses multiple page templates.

""")

heading2("""Standard Fonts and Colors""")

disc("""In $reportlab/demos/stdfonts$ the script stdfonts.py can be used to illustrate

ReportLab's standard fonts. Run the script using""")

eg("""

cd reportlab\\demos\\stdfonts

python stdfonts.py

""")

disc("""

to produce two PDF documents, StandardFonts_MacRoman.pdf &

StandardFonts_WinAnsi.pdf which show the two most common built in

font encodings.

""")

disc("""The colortest.py script in $reportlab/demos/colors$ demonstrates the different ways in which

reportlab can set up and use colors.""")

disc("""Try running the script and viewing the output document, colortest.pdf. This shows

different color spaces and a large selection of the colors which are named

in the $reportlab.lib.colors$ module.

""")

heading2("""Py2pdf""")

disc("""Dinu Gherman (<gherman@europemail.com>) contributed this useful script

which uses reportlab to produce nicely colorized PDF documents from Python

scripts including bookmarks for classes, methods and functions.

To get a nice version of the main script try""")

eg("""

cd reportlab/demos/py2pdf

python py2pdf.py py2pdf.py

acrord py2pdf.pdf

""")

disc("""i.e. we used py2pdf to produce a nice version of py2pdf.py in

the document with the same rootname and a .pdf extension.

""")

disc("""

The py2pdf.py script has many options which are beyond the scope of this

simple introduction; consult the comments at the start of the script.

""")

heading2("Gadflypaper")

disc("""

The Python script, gfe.py, in $reportlab/demos/gadflypaper$ uses an inline style of

document preparation. The script almost entirely produced by Aaron Watters produces a document

describing Aaron's $gadfly$ in memory database for Python. To generate the document use

""")

eg("""

cd reportlab\\gadflypaper

python gfe.py

start gfe.pdf

""")

disc("""

everything in the PDF document was produced by the script which is why this is an inline style

of document production. So, to produce a header followed by some text the script uses functions

$header$ and $p$ which take some text and append to a global story list.

""")

eg('''

header("Conclusion")

p("""The revamped query engine design in Gadfly 2 supports

..........

and integration.""")

''')

heading2("""Pythonpoint""")

disc("""Andy Robinson has refined the pythonpoint.py script (in $reportlab\\demos\\pythonpoint$)

until it is a really useful script. It takes an input file containing an XML markup

and uses an xmllib style parser to map the tags into PDF slides. When run in its own directory

pythonpoint.py takes as a default input the file pythonpoint.xml and produces pythonpoint.pdf

which is documentation for Pythonpoint! You can also see it in action with an older paper

""")

eg("""

cd reportlab\\demos\\pythonpoint

python pythonpoint.py monterey.xml

start monterey.pdf

""")

disc("""

Not only is pythonpoint self documenting, but it also demonstrates reportlab and PDF. It uses

many features of reportlab (document templates, tables etc).

Exotic features of PDF such as fadeins and bookmarks are also shown to good effect. The use of

an XML document can be contrasted with the <i>inline</i> style of the gadflypaper demo; the

content is completely separate from the formatting

""")