Hello readers,

      This blog is to help you to learn how to generate PDF using Apache's FOP in Java. Apache FOP ( Formatting Object Processor ) which uses XSL-FO to create PDF file of our document.

Here is a simple example to generate PDF file form our XML document file.

• First of all you need to download Apache FOP jar files. You can download it from here.http://redrockdigimark.com/apachemirror/xmlgraphics/fop/binaries/ and extract it to a location of your choice. 
• Open Eclipse
• Create a new Java Project, name it according to your choice.
• Right click on your project
• Select Build Path
• Select Configure Build Path
• Click on Add External Jars and add the jars inside your extracted package form /lib and /build directory
• Now create a package under src with name com.test.pdf
• Copy fop.xconf file from conf directory present in your extracted fop package
• Create a class with name GeneratePDF
• Copy the below code into it.

GeneratePDF.java

package com.test.pdf;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import javax.xml.transform.Result;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXResult;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

import org.apache.fop.apps.FOUserAgent;
import org.apache.fop.apps.Fop;
import org.apache.fop.apps.FopFactory;
import org.apache.fop.apps.MimeConstants;

public class GeneratePDF {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			System.out.println("FOP ExampleXML2PDF\n");
			System.out.println("Preparing...");

			// Setup input and output files
			File xmlfile = new File("src/", "document.xml");
			File xsltfile = new File("src/", "template.xsl");
			File pdffile = new File("src/", "ResultPDF.pdf");

			System.out.println("Input: XML (" + xmlfile + ")");
			System.out.println("Stylesheet: " + xsltfile);
			System.out.println("Output: PDF (" + pdffile + ")");
			System.out.println();
			System.out.println("Transforming...");

			// configure fopFactory as desired
			FopFactory fopFactory = FopFactory.newInstance(new File("src/fop.xconf"));

			//new File("src/fop.xconf");
			FOUserAgent foUserAgent = fopFactory.newFOUserAgent();
			// configure foUserAgent as desired

			// Setup output
			OutputStream out = new java.io.FileOutputStream(pdffile);
			out = new java.io.BufferedOutputStream(out);

			try {
				// Construct fop with desired output format
				Fop fop = fopFactory.newFop(MimeConstants.MIME_PDF,
						foUserAgent, out);

				// Setup XSLT
				TransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
				Transformer transformer = factory
						.newTransformer(new StreamSource(xsltfile));

				// Set the value of a <param> in the stylesheet
				transformer.setParameter("versionParam", "2.0");

				// Setup input for XSLT transformation
				Source src = new StreamSource(xmlfile);

				// Resulting SAX events (the generated FO) must be piped through
				// to FOP
				Result res = new SAXResult(fop.getDefaultHandler());

				// Start XSLT transformation and FOP processing
				transformer.transform(src, res);
			} finally {
				out.close();
			}

			System.out.println("Success!");
		} catch (Exception e) {
			System.out.print("ERROR!!");
			e.printStackTrace(System.err);
			System.exit(-1);
		}
	}
}

Create a file with name template.xsl under src and append the following code into it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
	xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
	<xsl:template match="/">
		<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
			<fo:layout-master-set>
				<fo:simple-page-master master-name="simple"
					page-height="8.5in" page-width="11in" margin-top=".5in"
					margin-bottom=".5in" margin-left=".5in" margin-right=".5in">
					<fo:region-body margin-top="2cm" margin-bottom="2cm" />
					<fo:region-before extent="2cm" overflow="hidden" />
					<fo:region-after extent="1cm" overflow="hidden" />
				</fo:simple-page-master>
			</fo:layout-master-set>
			<fo:page-sequence master-reference="simple"
				initial-page-number="1">
				<fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-before">
					<fo:block font-size="13.0pt" font-family="serif"
						padding-after="2.0pt" space-before="4.0pt" text-align="center"
						border-bottom-style="solid" border-bottom-width="1.0pt">
						<xsl:text>PDF Test</xsl:text>
					</fo:block>
				</fo:static-content>
				<fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-after">
					<fo:block font-size="12.0pt" font-family="sans-serif"
						padding-after="2.0pt" space-before="2.0pt" text-align="center"
						border-top-style="solid" border-bottom-width="1.0pt">
						<xsl:text>Page</xsl:text>
						<fo:page-number />
					</fo:block>
				</fo:static-content>
				<fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
					<xsl:apply-templates select="data" />
				</fo:flow>
			</fo:page-sequence>
		</fo:root>
	</xsl:template>
	<xsl:template match="data">
		<fo:block text-align="center">
			<fo:table table-layout="fixed" width="100%">
				<fo:table-column column-width="50%" />
				<fo:table-column column-width="50%" />
				<fo:table-body>
					<fo:table-row keep-together.within-page="always">
						<fo:table-cell>
							<fo:block font-size="10pt" font-family="sans-serif"
								background-color="grey" color="white" text-align="left"
								padding-top="3pt">
								Field
							</fo:block>
						</fo:table-cell>
						<fo:table-cell>
							<fo:block font-size="10pt" font-family="sans-serif"
								background-color="grey" color="white" text-align="left"
								padding-top="3pt">
								Value
							</fo:block>
						</fo:table-cell>
					</fo:table-row>
				</fo:table-body>
			</fo:table>
			<fo:table table-layout="fixed" width="100%">
				<fo:table-column column-width="50%" />
				<fo:table-column column-width="50%" />
				<fo:table-body>
					<fo:table-row keep-together.within-page="always">
						<fo:table-cell>
							<xsl:apply-templates select="field" />
						</fo:table-cell>
						<fo:table-cell>
							<xsl:apply-templates select="value" />
						</fo:table-cell>
					</fo:table-row>
				</fo:table-body>
			</fo:table>
		</fo:block>
	</xsl:template>
	<xsl:template match="field">
		<fo:block font-size="9pt" font-family="sans-serif"
			space-after.optimum="1pt" text-align="justify">
			<xsl:value-of select="." />
		</fo:block>
	</xsl:template>
	<xsl:template match="value">
		<fo:block font-size="9pt" font-family="sans-serif"
			space-after.optimum="1pt" text-align="justify">
			<xsl:value-of select="." />
		</fo:block>
	</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Create one more file for which our PDF will be generated with name document.xml and append the following code into it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<data>
	<field>First Name</field>
	<value>David</value>
	<field>Second Name</field>
	<value>Joe</value>
	<field>Middle Name</field>
	<value>Luther</value>
	<field>Address1</field>
	<value>Rose Villa</value>
	<field>Address2</field>
	<value>Picadilly</value>
	<field>City</field>
	<value>London</value>
	<field>Date Of Joining</field>
	<value>6/10/2015</value>
	<field>Date of Birth</field>
	<value>01-01-1992</value>
	<field>Gender</field>
	<value>Male</value>
	<field>Marital Status</field>
	<value>Unmarried</value>
	<field>Name of Spouse</field>
	<value>Not applicable</value>
	<field>Credit card Number</field>
	<value>01-03222-32</value>
	<field>Land Phone</field>
	<value>1234567890</value>
	<field>Mobile Phone</field>
	<value>Not Applicable</value>
	<field>Education</field>
	<value>Post graduate</value>
	<field>Passport Number</field>
	<value>1212</value>
	<field>Date of Issue</field>
	<value>08-08-2004</value>
	<field>Date of Expiry</field>
	<value>08-09-2008</value>
</data>

Now run GeneratePDF.java as Java application. After successful execution ResultPDF.pdf will be generated inside our src directory. Refresh your project and check it inside /src directory.

Thanks for reading :)