| iTextSharp Tutorial |
|
iTextSharp, a Free C#-PDF library |
||
| [Home] | [Previous] | [TOC] | [Next] | [PDF] |
|
Part III: Advanced iText Chapter 11: Local and Remote Goto's, Destinations and Outlines |
||||
|
Local goto Sometimes you need a link to allow the reader of your document to jump from one position in the text to another. You can achieve this with two methods of class Chunk: setLocalGoto and setLocalDestination. Both methods take 1 parameter: this is the unique name you want to give to the destination. Example: Chunk localgoto = new Chunk("this word", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 12, Font.NORMAL, new Color(0, 0, 255))).setLocalGoto("test"); Chunk destination = new Chunk("local destination", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 12, Font.NORMAL, new Color(0, 255, 0))).setLocalDestination("test"); The 'local goto' functionality is demonstrated in example 1 and it can be tested in the resulting document Chap1101.pdf. |
||||
|
Remote goto anchors again In Chapter 3 we showed how an Anchor to an external URL could be created. Class Anchor extended class Phrase, so an anchor could contains different chunks with different fonts, styles and colors. In advanced iText, there is another way to define a link to an URL: Chunk chunk = new Chunk("anchor", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 12)).setAnchor(new URL("http://www.lowagie.com/iText/")); Jump to a specific position in another PDF document If you have defined a local destination in a certain document (see section local goto), you can jump to this destination from another document. To achieve this, you can use the method setRemoteGoto: Chunk chunk = new Chunk("jump", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 12, Font.ITALIC)).setRemoteGoto("test.pdf", "test")); 'test.pdf' being another document and 'test' a local destination in this document. Jump to a specific page in another PDF document It's even easier to jump to a specific page in another document, just use the method setRemoteGoto with a pagenumber instead of the name of some local destination: Chunk chunk = new Chunk("jump", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 12, Font.ITALIC)).setRemoteGoto("test.pdf", 3)); Check out example 2 and Chap1102a.pdf/Chap1102b.pdf for a little demonstration. |
||||
|
Actions A PDF document can have a certain interactivity: you can create several 'actions' to jump to another page or location, to start an other application,... These are the actions that are supported in iText: Named actions There are 4 predefined named actions in iText:
PdfAction action = new PdfAction(PdfAction.FIRSTPAGE); Chunk chunk = new Chunk("Click me to go to the first page"); chunk.setAction(action); document.add(chunk); You can find an example of these 4 named destinations in example 3 (Chap1103.pdf). Launching an application This feature is also demonstrated in example 3 (but it is very platformdependent). If you use this constructor: public PdfAction(String application, String parameters, String operation, String defaultDir) with for instance application equals to "c:/winnt/notepad.exe" (the rest of the parameters can be null), you can launch NOTEPAD from a link in your PDF document (if you have the notepad executable in the specified directory). Open action You can also trigger an action the moment somebody opens the document. This can be done in two different ways:
Javascript You can add javascript to a document using the Javascript-object: PdfAction jAction = PdfAction.csScript("this.print(true);\r", writer); writer.addJavaScript(jAction); Try out example 6 and open Chap1106.pdf; a print dialog will open immediately. files and URLs If you want to jump to another document or URL, you have to create a PdfAction using one of the following constructors: PdfAction(String filename, String name); PdfAction(String filename, int page); PdfAction(URL url); PdfAction(String url); The first two constructors allow you to define an action to jump to a certain page or location in another PDF file. The last two allow you to jump to a certain URL. We are going to use these actions in some of the examples below. |
||||
|
Destinations Uptill now the destinations we used allways were related to a chunk, but it's also possible to create your own destinations. This is a list of the possible types:
PdfDestination d1 = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.XYZ, 300, 800, 0); PdfDestination d2 = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FITH, 500); PdfDestination d3 = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FITR, 200, 300, 400, 500); PdfDestination d4 = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FITBV, 100); PdfDestination d5 = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FIT); When a destination is created, it is not linked to a certain page in the document. Only when add the destination the outline tree, it will point to the 'current' page. We will use these destinations in the next section: |
||||
|
Outlines In Chapter 4, we were able to build an outline tree by using the objects Chapter and Section. Now we are going to build an outline tree manually. First of all we have to ask the contentbyte of the writer for the root of the outline tree: PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent(); PdfOutline root = cb.getRootOutline(); To this root we can add several branches and subbranches: PdfOutline out1 = new PdfOutline(root, d1, "root"); PdfOutline out2 = new PdfOutline(out1, d2, "sub 1"); PdfOutline out3 = new PdfOutline(out1, d3, "sub 2"); PdfOutline out4 = new PdfOutline(out2, d4, "sub 2.1"); PdfOutline out5 = new PdfOutline(out2, d5, "sub 2.2"); In example 7, we first place some crosses. These crosses will mark different destinations. Click on the different outline entries in document Chap1107.pdf to test the destination functionality. In example 8, we build the outline tree automatically again, just as when we used Chapters and Sections. This time however, we use a PageEventHelper class that adds an outline every time a new paragraph is started. But more about these page events in the next chapter. Check out Chap1108.pdf (and read all about some brave belgians). It is also possible to add actions to an outline tree. This is demonstrated in example 9 (Chap1109.pdf). |
||||
|
Page labels on
thumbnails Besides outlines, you also have 'thumbnails' that show you a small version of every page. Under each thumbnail, you have a label. If you want to change the style of these page labels, you have to create a PdfPageLabels-object and add a new style, content or pagenumber value, starting from a certain 'real' pagenumber. These are the different styles you can use:
|
||||
| [Top] | [Previous] | [TOC] | [Next] | [PDF] |
|
Page Updated: $Date: 2002/07/02
06:58:26 $ Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Bruno Lowagie |
Adolf Baeyensstraat 121, 9040 Gent, BELGIUM, tel +00 32 92 28 10 97 mailto:itext@lowagie.com |
|||