How to create sub documents for Itext PDF - itext

Question

I have been tasked with creating a work order application where the
output is PDF for printing from a browser. The output has to be one PDF
document containing one or more "work orders". Due to variable content length each work order might be more than one printed page. Each work order must have its own "page" numbering. I am using Spring MVC and Itext 5.
So imagine we have three work orders. The first will fit on one printed
page, the second requires two printed pages, and the third requires one printed page. We have a total of four printed pages.
How do make so that:
Work order one would have a page number of "1"
Work order two would have page numbers "1, 2"
Work order three would page number "1"
So basically the PDF document would be a container for multiple inner
documents that are independent from each other.
I have tried to reset the page numbers and use the footer for output but that does not seem to work. I am wondering if there some way to set a custom page counter that I can control.
public class PDFBuilder extends AbstractITextPdfView
{
#Override
protected void buildPdfDocument(Map<String, Object> model, Document doc,
PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception
{
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked") // TODO replace this with some generic goodness
List<WorkOrderDto> workOrders = (List<WorkOrderDto>) model.get("workOrders");
Integer pageCounter = 1;
// define table header cell
PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell();
cell.setBackgroundColor(BaseColor.BLUE);
cell.setPadding(5);
// define font for table header row
Font font = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA);
font.setColor(BaseColor.WHITE);
writer.setPageEvent(new Footer(pageCounter));
for (WorkOrderDto dto : workOrders)
{
PdfPTable woHeader = new PdfPTable(4);
woHeader.setWidthPercentage(100.0f);
woHeader.setSpacingBefore(10);
if (dto.getNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Number: " + dto.getNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Number: ");
}
if (dto.getOwnerNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Owner: " + dto.getOwnerNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Owner: ");
}
if (dto.getTypeNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Type: " + dto.getTypeNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Type: ");
}
if (dto.getScheduleDate() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Open Date: " + dto.getScheduleDate().toString());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Open Date: ");
}
doc.add(woHeader);
PdfPTable servicesTable = new PdfPTable(4);
for (ServiceDto serviceDto : dto.getCurrentServices())
{
servicesTable.addCell("Number: " + serviceDto.getNumber());
servicesTable.addCell("Name: " + serviceDto.getName());
servicesTable.addCell("Description: " + serviceDto.getDescription());
servicesTable.addCell("Status: " + serviceDto.getStatus());
}
doc.add(servicesTable);
doc.newPage();
pageCounter++;
}
}
}
public class Footer implements PdfPageEvent
{
Font ffont = new Font(Font.FontFamily.UNDEFINED, 10, Font.ITALIC);
Integer pageCounter;
public Footer(Integer pageCounter)
{
this.pageCounter = pageCounter;
}
#Override
public void onOpenDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onStartPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
Phrase footer = new Phrase(pageCounter + "", ffont);
ColumnText.showTextAligned(cb, Element.ALIGN_CENTER,
footer,
(document.right() - document.left()) / 2 + document.leftMargin(),
document.bottom() - 10, 0);
}
#Override
public void onCloseDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onParagraph(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onParagraphEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onChapter(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition, Paragraph title)
{
}
#Override
public void onChapterEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onSection(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition, int depth, Paragraph title)
{
}
#Override
public void onSectionEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onGenericTag(PdfWriter writer, Document document, Rectangle rect, String text)
{
}
}

Answer 1

I came up with my own solution which turned out to be very simple. I created a class called PageCounter with some properties to represent various counters. I pass that to the footer and then manipulate the properties while building out the pages.
public class PageCounter
{
private Integer currentPage = 1;
private Integer totalPages = 1;
public Integer getCurrentPage()
{
return currentPage;
}
public void setCurrentPage(Integer currentPage)
{
this.currentPage = currentPage;
}
public Integer getTotalPages()
{
return totalPages;
}
public void setTotalPages(Integer totalPages)
{
this.totalPages = totalPages;
}
public void increment()
{
this.currentPage++;
}
public void reset()
{
this.currentPage = 1;
}
}
public class PDFBuilder extends AbstractITextPdfView
{
#Override
protected void buildPdfDocument(Map<String, Object> model, Document doc,
PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception
{
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked") // TODO replace this with some generic goodness
List<WorkOrderDto> workOrders = (List<WorkOrderDto>) model.get("workOrders");
PageCounter pageCounter = new PageCounter();
// define table header cell
PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell();
cell.setBackgroundColor(BaseColor.BLUE);
cell.setPadding(5);
// define font for table header row
Font font = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA);
font.setColor(BaseColor.WHITE);
writer.setPageEvent(new Footer(pageCounter));
for (WorkOrderDto dto : workOrders)
{
PdfPTable woHeader = new PdfPTable(4);
woHeader.setWidthPercentage(100.0f);
woHeader.setSpacingBefore(10);
if (dto.getNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Number: " + dto.getNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Number: ");
}
if (dto.getOwnerNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Owner: " + dto.getOwnerNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Owner: ");
}
if (dto.getTypeNumber() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Type: " + dto.getTypeNumber());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Type: ");
}
if (dto.getScheduleDate() != null)
{
woHeader.addCell("Open Date: " + dto.getScheduleDate().toString());
}
else
{
woHeader.addCell("Open Date: ");
}
doc.add(woHeader);
PdfPTable servicesTable = new PdfPTable(4);
for (ServiceDto serviceDto : dto.getCurrentServices())
{
servicesTable.addCell("Number: " + serviceDto.getNumber());
servicesTable.addCell("Name: " + serviceDto.getName());
servicesTable.addCell("Description: " + serviceDto.getDescription());
servicesTable.addCell("Status: " + serviceDto.getStatus());
}
doc.add(servicesTable);
doc.newPage();
pageCounter.reset();
}
public class Footer implements PdfPageEvent
{
Font ffont = new Font(Font.FontFamily.UNDEFINED, 10, Font.ITALIC);
PageCounter pageCounter;
public Footer(PageCounter pageCounter)
{
this.pageCounter = pageCounter;
}
#Override
public void onOpenDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onStartPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
Phrase footer = new Phrase(pageCounter.getCurrentPage() + "", ffont);
pageCounter.increment();
ColumnText.showTextAligned(cb, Element.ALIGN_CENTER,
footer,
(document.right() - document.left()) / 2 + document.leftMargin(),
document.bottom() - 10, 0);
}
#Override
public void onCloseDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
}
#Override
public void onParagraph(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onParagraphEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onChapter(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition, Paragraph title)
{
}
#Override
public void onChapterEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onSection(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition, int depth, Paragraph title)
{
}
#Override
public void onSectionEnd(PdfWriter writer, Document document, float paragraphPosition)
{
}
#Override
public void onGenericTag(PdfWriter writer, Document document, Rectangle rect, String text)
{
}
}