SQL Reports in PHP 1

[monkle]

I am currently working on an online order management system. The only thing I need to complete before we can start processing orders is printing invoices.

We have Crystal Reports (Dev. Edition), and we have the new Microsoft Report Services. I have poured days, possibly weeks into attempting to get each of these working, but to no avail.

I really have to have the invoice working ASAP. I want to attempt creating the invoice in php, because it's one thing I know is functioning correctly on our server. I have a couple ideas on how to go about it, but I want to run it by you guys.

I have two theories on how to go about it.

1 Write php scripts that talk directly to the printer

2 Write php scripts that generate and save files, and then send the files to the printer.

Server Specs:
win2k
IIS 5
SQL 2000
PHP 4.3.7

 

[sleipnir214]

I would probably just pass the invoices directly to the printer.

Since you're running PHP on Win32, you have PHP's Printer functions available to you to pretty up the printing.


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[Bastien]

or create pdfs

http://www.fpdf.org

http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/File_Manipulation/PDF/

google free php pdf generators

Bastien

Cat, the other other white meat

 

[monkle]

sleipnir214
Thank you for your suggestion. I decided to go with it.

I had fun playing with the printer functions yesterday, and succeeded in getting the printer to print out some random text. I've come up against a problem, though...

How do I set margins on the pages? I've been trying to find a good resource on how to use the printer functions, but I have yet to find anything on formatting.

 

[sleipnir214]

I don't think you can. I see nothing in any of the PHP online documentation that mentions it.

More than likely you'll have to use the printer_draw_text() function and keep track of margins yourself.


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[monkle]

Bastien
I took a quick look at the links that you posted the other day. I decided to mess around with it, and see if it was a possibility.

The upshot of it is, I'm almost completely finished with the invoices. It took me a bit of time learning my way around it, but once I started to get the hang of it, I was very impressed. Thank you for getting me pointed in the right direction.