Journal Article - Creating Multiple Language PDFs using Apache FOP

[Dirk Schreckmann]

The just-released September 2004 edition of The JavaRanch Journal includes an article by Balaji Loganathan, "Creating Multiple Language PDFs using Apache FOP".

Please use this thread to comment on and discuss the article.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Please note that the Arabic text may appear in reversed and as seperated chars inspite of the correct xml input.
The current work around for this problem is to use a xsl:template and reverse the input string.

The new xsl is given below which can be used for the above article.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<fo:root>
<fo:layout-master-set>
<fo:simple-page-master master-name="MultiLang">
   <fo:region-body margin-top="1cm" margin-left="2cm"/>
</fo:simple-page-master>
</fo:layout-master-set>
 
<fo:page-sequence master-reference="MultiLang">
 
<fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
<!-- English Message-->
  <fo:block>English</fo:block>
  <xsl:variable name="message" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/en/text1"/>
  <xsl:variable name="font" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/en/fontname"/>
  <fo:block font-family="{$font}"><xsl:value-of select="$message"/></fo:block>
  <fo:block>-</fo:block>
 
<!-- Arabic Message-->
  <fo:block>Arabic</fo:block>
  <xsl:variable name="message" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/ar/text1"/>
  <xsl:variable name="font" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/ar/fontname"/>  
  <fo:block text-align="end" font-family="{$font}" letter-spacing="-2pt">  
  <xsl:call-template name="reverse">
  <xsl:with-param name="theString" select="$message"/>
  </xsl:call-template>
  </fo:block>
  <fo:block>-</fo:block>
 
<!-- Japenese Message-->
  <fo:block>Japenese</fo:block>
  <xsl:variable name="message" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/jp/text1"/>
  <xsl:variable name="font" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/jp/fontname"/>
  <fo:block font-family="{$font}"><xsl:value-of select="$message"/></fo:block>
  <fo:block>-</fo:block>
 
<!-- French Message-->
  <fo:block>French</fo:block>
  <xsl:variable name="message" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/fr/text1"/>
  <xsl:variable name="font" select="document('Lang.xml')/Lang/fr/fontname"/>
  <fo:block font-family="{$font}"><xsl:value-of select="$message"/></fo:block>
  <fo:block>-</fo:block>
 
</fo:flow>
</fo:page-sequence>
</fo:root>
 
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="reverse">
 <xsl:param name="theString"/>
 <xsl:variable name="thisLength" select="string-length($theString)"/>
 <xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="$thisLength = 1">
   <xsl:value-of select="$theString"/>
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
   <xsl:variable name="restReverse">
    <xsl:call-template name="reverse">
     <xsl:with-param name="theString" select="substring($theString,  1, $thisLength -1)"/>
    </xsl:call-template>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:value-of select="concat(substring($theString,$thisLength, 1) ,$restReverse)"/>
  </xsl:otherwise>
 </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

There is also another workaround by custom building the FOP engine specific to hebrew and arabic font, i will update this page when i get more info.
[ October 27, 2004: Message edited by: Balaji Loganathan ]

[sreeju k g]

Dear Balaji,

Ok your post is helpfull. but in case of arabic characters it will not help. it is not a character by character language like arabic. I read your article and produce one pdf. Now the arabic characters are from right to left. but it is not readable. the links from one character to another is not there. so it is not the way to display arabic. if you have any solution to this please give me.

thanks in advance.
regards Sreeju

[Balaji Loganathan]

Originally posted by sreeju k g:
Now the arabic characters are from right to left. but it is not readable.
regards Sreeju

Is it the case even after reversing the string ??

<xsl:call-template name="reverse">
 <xsl:with-param name="theString" select="$message"/>
</xsl:call-template>

[Balaji Loganathan]

By the way welcome to Javaranch Sreeju!!..

[shail nig]

i am not able to generate multilingual pdf using the above said procedure

can anyone help???

m using following command

FOP -c conf/userconfig.xml -xml Lang.xml -xsl MultiLAng.xsl -pdf MultiLang.pdf

my userconfig.xml file is

<font metrics-file="m-ARIAn.xml" embed-file="C:/m-ARIAn.ttf" kerning="yes">
<font-triplet name="mARIAn" />
<font-triplet name="mARIAn" />
</font>

<font metrics-file="Iqraa.xml" kerning="yes" embed-file="C:/WINNT/Fonts/Iqraa.ttf">
<font-triplet name="Iqraa" style="normal" weight="normal"/>
</font>

'#' is being generated instead of special characters

Shail

[Skip Cole]

This doesn't work for me either.

I'm specifically interested in producing the Arabic output, but I am not getting it. Empty boxes show up for each of the characters.

Any ideas?

[Paul Clapham]

Empty boxes almost always mean you're using a font that can't render the characters that you aren't seeing.