public abstract class

AbstractPdfView

extends AbstractView
java.lang.Object
   ↳ org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
     ↳ org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport
       ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView
         ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractPdfView

Class Overview

Abstract superclass for PDF views, using Bruno Lowagie's iText package. Application-specific view classes will extend this class. The view will be held in the subclass itself, not in a template.

Note: Internet Explorer requires a ".pdf" extension, as it doesn't always respect the declared content type.

See Also

Summary

[Expand]
Inherited Constants
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView
[Expand]
Inherited Fields
From class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
From interface org.springframework.web.servlet.View
Public Constructors
AbstractPdfView()
This constructor sets the appropriate content type "application/pdf".
Protected Methods
abstract void buildPdfDocument(Map<String, Object> model, Document document, PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Subclasses must implement this method to build an iText PDF document, given the model.
void buildPdfMetadata(Map<String, Object> model, Document document, HttpServletRequest request)
Populate the iText Document's meta fields (author, title, etc.).
boolean generatesDownloadContent()
Return whether this view generates download content (typically binary content like PDF or Excel files).
int getViewerPreferences()
Return the viewer preferences for the PDF file.
Document newDocument()
Create a new document to hold the PDF contents.
PdfWriter newWriter(Document document, OutputStream os)
Create a new PdfWriter for the given iText Document.
void prepareWriter(Map<String, Object> model, PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request)
Prepare the given PdfWriter.
final void renderMergedOutputModel(Map<String, Object> model, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Subclasses must implement this method to actually render the view.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView
From class org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport
From class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
From class java.lang.Object
From interface org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanNameAware
From interface org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware
From interface org.springframework.web.context.ServletContextAware
From interface org.springframework.web.servlet.View

Public Constructors

public AbstractPdfView ()

This constructor sets the appropriate content type "application/pdf". Note that IE won't take much notice of this, but there's not a lot we can do about this. Generated documents should have a ".pdf" extension.

Protected Methods

protected abstract void buildPdfDocument (Map<String, Object> model, Document document, PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

Subclasses must implement this method to build an iText PDF document, given the model. Called between Document.open() and Document.close() calls.

Note that the passed-in HTTP response is just supposed to be used for setting cookies or other HTTP headers. The built PDF document itself will automatically get written to the response after this method returns.

Parameters
model the model Map
document the iText Document to add elements to
writer the PdfWriter to use
request in case we need locale etc. Shouldn't look at attributes.
response in case we need to set cookies. Shouldn't write to it.
Throws
Exception any exception that occured during document building
See Also
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#open()
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#close()

protected void buildPdfMetadata (Map<String, Object> model, Document document, HttpServletRequest request)

Populate the iText Document's meta fields (author, title, etc.).
Default is an empty implementation. Subclasses may override this method to add meta fields such as title, subject, author, creator, keywords, etc. This method is called after assigning a PdfWriter to the Document and before calling document.open().

Parameters
model the model, in case meta information must be populated from it
document the iText document being populated
request in case we need locale etc. Shouldn't look at attributes.
See Also
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addTitle
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addSubject
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addKeywords
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addAuthor
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addCreator
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addProducer
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addCreationDate
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#addHeader

protected boolean generatesDownloadContent ()

Return whether this view generates download content (typically binary content like PDF or Excel files).

The default implementation returns false. Subclasses are encouraged to return true here if they know that they are generating download content that requires temporary caching on the client side, typically via the response OutputStream.

protected int getViewerPreferences ()

Return the viewer preferences for the PDF file.

By default returns AllowPrinting and PageLayoutSinglePage, but can be subclassed. The subclass can either have fixed preferences or retrieve them from bean properties defined on the View.

Returns
  • an int containing the bits information against PdfWriter definitions
See Also
  • com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter#AllowPrinting
  • com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter#PageLayoutSinglePage

protected Document newDocument ()

Create a new document to hold the PDF contents.

By default returns an A4 document, but the subclass can specify any Document, possibly parameterized via bean properties defined on the View.

Returns
  • the newly created iText Document instance
See Also
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#Document(com.lowagie.text.Rectangle)

protected PdfWriter newWriter (Document document, OutputStream os)

Create a new PdfWriter for the given iText Document.

Parameters
document the iText Document to create a writer for
os the OutputStream to write to
Returns
  • the PdfWriter instance to use
Throws
if thrown during writer creation
DocumentException

protected void prepareWriter (Map<String, Object> model, PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request)

Prepare the given PdfWriter. Called before building the PDF document, that is, before the call to Document.open().

Useful for registering a page event listener, for example. The default implementation sets the viewer preferences as returned by this class's getViewerPreferences() method.

Parameters
model the model, in case meta information must be populated from it
writer the PdfWriter to prepare
request in case we need locale etc. Shouldn't look at attributes.
Throws
if thrown during writer preparation
DocumentException
See Also
  • com.lowagie.text.Document#open()
  • com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter#setPageEvent
  • com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter#setViewerPreferences
  • getViewerPreferences()

protected final void renderMergedOutputModel (Map<String, Object> model, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

Subclasses must implement this method to actually render the view.

The first step will be preparing the request: In the JSP case, this would mean setting model objects as request attributes. The second step will be the actual rendering of the view, for example including the JSP via a RequestDispatcher.

Parameters
model combined output Map (never null), with dynamic values taking precedence over static attributes
request current HTTP request
response current HTTP response
Throws
Exception