[Exist-open] Generating pdf's from xml in eXist

[Anne <ann...@gm...>]

Hi all,

In our group we have quite a collection of political data, in xml format
stored in eXist. We use eXist to index our data and make it searchable.
Now we want to be able to offer access to our data in several formats. Xml
is straightforward, and using the xsltservlet we also produce several
transformations of our data (html, plain text...)

But here it comes, we want to be able to produce pdf files on the fly from
our xml data. I am mailing this list because I am not sure how to proceed.
Has anyone done this before? How?

I have some thoughts:

   - First create latex source, using xslt
   - Make a system-call to pdflatex
   - Forward the http request to the generated pdf

However, Im not sure how to make a system call using xquery, and (if that is
possible at all) how to pass it the generated latex source.
Another solution would be to have something like php in the middle that
request the latex source from exist and makes the system call. (something
similar is done in
http://www.schst.net/downloads/presentations/dynamic-transformations-from-xml-to-pdf-documents.pdf
)
But I prefer to keep the whole application within eXist.

Your thoughts on this issue are very much appreciated!

Anne Schuth
Univeristy of Amsterdam