Re: [Gnue-dev] Re: GNUe Reports and xmlns, oh my!

[Jason Cater]

Actually, these are the types of considerations I had when I stated I
didn't want the XML format to be *locked* and why I liked the idea of the
XML namespaces to identify output tags.  This would facilitate these exact
possibilities.  

Actually, mail merge would probably be my first example report markup (as
I can pretty much do an example mailmerge format without involving a lot
of decision making.)  I already have some mailmerge examples in the
reports/samples/mailmerge directory, but these are klunky and use RTF
instead of the word processor's native XML format. They are a hack, and
not a graceful one at that.

>From Derek: 
> Yes.  I am bummed to not have more time as i think the merge thing is
much > larger for document solutions like loan documents, medical forms
and legal > forms, but I think that should be a different tool perhaps.

I don't follow why this would be a separate tool.  This is the *exact*
kind of flexibility I'm looking for in Reports.  The examples that Stan
has given are actually the exact same needs I'm facing.

If you see a repeating theme in all my Reports email, it is "flexibility."

-- Jason


On Thu, 21 Mar 2002 17:14:31 -0600 (CST)
"Derek Neighbors" <address@hidden> wrote:

> > The solution I've been thinking about is to get the GNUe Reports
output> > into a format appropriate for one of the word processors that
use XML as> > their native format.  These include AbiWord and OpenOffice. 
I think> > AbiWord is GPL, so we could actually link directly to the
appropriate> > AbiWord code for processing and printing without needing to
leave GNUe and> > separately start AbiWord.  I haven't checked the GPL
compatibility status> > of the OpenOffice license, but there would be no
licensing difficulties in> > generating a file that it could separately
process and print.> 
> This locks into that.  The idea is that you simply export to xml and use
> xslt to transform into the xml of choice.
> 
> >  For the labels, StarOffice has built-in formats for various types of
Avery> > label stock, so I would expect OpenOffice to have the formats
also.  There> > is every reason to expect AbiWord to eventually also have
the formats.> > What would be needed is the capability for including the
label formatting> > data with the GNUe Reports output.  
> > 
> > An invoice with letterhead would involve preparing the letterhead in
> > AbiWord and having GNUe Reports output the AbiWord XML together with
the> > invoice data and printing the resulting file from AbiWord.
> > 
> > Similar considerations are involved in doing the mail-merge.
> > 
> 
> The engine as it sits today does mail merges with all products you 
> mentioned.
> 
> > I haven't studied Jason's proposed approach to see how it would affect
my> > suggested solution to these three applications, but I think examples
such> > as these should be taken into account in formulating an overall
approach to> > formatting under GNUe Reports.
> 
> Yes.  I am bummed to not have more time as i think the merge thing is
much > larger for document solutions like loan documents, medical forms
and legal > forms, but I think that should be a different tool perhaps.
> 
> Derek
> 
> 
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