[Zope] Re: [Zope-dev] Transactions support on MySql

[Jamieson Becker]

> > 2. The project I will work on requires a lot of very
> > customized reports to be printed on blank paper as
> > well as pre printed form.  I have used Delphi from my
> > previous project.  I used the report writter came with
> > Delphi to design & print all sorts of report on all
> > kinds of papers (blank, pre printed form, labels,
> > etc).  How can I produce reports for printing to pre
> > printed form?
I've been thinking about this myself as I'd really like to convert a lot of our
company's internal databases to Zope.

I would redesign my forms (sorry!) :-( using LaTeX or -possibly easier?-Lout.
Then use an external method to push the form fields to the Lout script. The Lout
interpreter will produce a Postscript file (LaTeX produces a dvi file which you
then convert to Postscript) which you can then push to the printer. You could
convert the Postscript file to PDF if that would be easier for the clients (see
below).

If the client was a remote client, you'd have to have them download, open, and
print the Postscript file using Acrobat, ghostview, or some other format. kind
of a pain. Alternatively, if you have control over your clients, you could have
them use the Adobe Acrobat plug in in their browsers and then when they clicked
on the PDF file it would open in their browser, at which point they could just
press the print button.

If the printer was going to be hooked up to the server, the task becomes
easier because you could just lpr (print under NT) the PS file right there.
Keep in mind that if your printer doesn't understand postscript, you will
either convert it to PDF and use Adobe Acrobat (under NT), or use
Ghostscript/Ghostview/etc under Linux or NT.

I know it sounds like a great deal of effort but it'd probably be worth doing.

> > 3. My project also requires barcode (Code39) printing
> > on labels feed from dot-matrix printers.  Where can I
> > find barcode module or class for Zope.
Not sure about this -- but probably your best bet is to use a Postscript or
TrueType font that does bar codes for you. I don't know that much about bar
codes but I know Corel has a few in their clipart packages. As above, you'd
specify the font in your Lout script and that would automagically get included
in the PS file.

Good luck! Let me know what you end up doing! :-)