README

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This library provides a simple and readable interface for easily generating and validating your XSL-FO documents.

Code sample:

<?php

$foNamespace = new XmlNamespace('fo', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format');

$generatedDocument = new XmlDocument();
$generatedDocument->setGlobalNamespace($foNamespace);
$root = (new Root())
    ->namespace($foNamespace)
    ->child((new LayoutMasterSet())
        ->child((new SimplePageMaster())
            ->attributes([
                new Attribute('master-name', 'simple'),
                new Attribute('page-height', '29.7cm'),
                new Attribute('page-width', '21cm'),
                new Attribute('margin', '2cm'),
            ])
            ->child(new RegionBody())))
    ->child((new PageSequence())
        ->attribute(new Attribute('master-reference', 'simple'))
        ->child((new Flow())
            ->attribute(new Attribute('flow-name', 'xsl-region-body'))
            ->child((new Block())
                ->attributes([
                    new Attribute('font-size', '12pt'),
                    new Attribute('line-height', '14pt'),
                ])
                ->content('XSL-FO (Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects) is an XML language used to describe the layout of printed documents.')
            )
            ->child((new Block())
                ->content('It is commonly used with XSLT to transform XML data into printable files using tools such as Apache FOP.')
            )
            ->child((new Block())
                ->child((new BasicLink())
                    ->attribute(new Attribute('external-destination', "url('http://exemple.com/xsl-fo-docs')"))
                    ->content('FOP documentation')
                )
            )
        )
    );

Features

This library follows the XSL-FO 1.1 specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/xsl11/.

It supports:

• The various XSL-FO tags (fo:block, fo:instream-foreign-object, ...)
• The different possible properties for each tag
• The various possible values for each property
• The use of expressions such as floor(1.25): https://www.w3.org/TR/xsl11/#d0e5032
• The use of XSL-FO functions, known as the Core Function Library: https://www.w3.org/TR/xsl11/#d0e5857
• References to inherited properties

For each structure, you can use the validate method to check whether the generated structure is correct.

Why?

The XSL-FO specification and its implementations offer many advantages in an era where PDFs are generated by a web rendering engine:

• XSL-FO correctly handles bookmarks
• XSL-FO natively supports form-related controls
• XSL-FO integrates digital accessibility, making it easier to generate accessible PDF documents
• XSL-FO does not require installing a browser rendering engine such as Puppeteer

Beyond these advantages, this package:

• Is well tested, with its 7,500 test files (and counting!)
• Is performance-oriented, maintaining XSL-FO’s advantages over browser-based rendering
• Follows modern coding conventions and is fully documented
• Is designed to work with PHP 8.0 🚀

Generate PDF documents with XSL Core

XSL Core is not an implementation, meaning it does not create PDF documents with XSL-FO. It is a library designed to validate and simplify document creation.

To generate a document, you need to use one of the available implementations:

• Apache FOP (open source, free): https://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
• AntennaHouse (proprietary, paid): https://www.antennahouse.com/
• RenderX (proprietary, paid): https://www.renderx.com/

Apache FOP Example

Download Apache FOP: https://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/download.html or apt install fop (depending on your distribution)

Generate a document with XSL Core:

<?php

use Lsa\Xml\Utils\Xml\XmlDocument;
use Lsa\Xml\Utils\Xml\XmlNamespace;
use Lsa\Xsl\Core\Tags\Layout\Root;

require_once __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php';
$foNamespace = new XmlNamespace('fo', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format');

$generatedDocument = new XmlDocument();
$generatedDocument->setGlobalNamespace($foNamespace);
// Build structure
$root = (new Root())
    ->namespace($foNamespace);

// Write in a file
file_put_contents('my-document.fo', $root->asXml());

// Call Apache FOP, with any mean you wish to
shell_exec('fop my-document.fo my-pdf.pdf');

Installation

This library is available on Composer. Install it with:

composer require ls-a/xsl-core

Changelog

Please refer to the CHANGELOG file to see the latest changes.

Support

We put our heart into delivering high-quality products that are accessible to everyone. If you like our work, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for your next project!

Contributing

Contributions are governed by the CONTRIBUTING file.

Security

If you’ve found a bug or vulnerability, please contact us by email at contact@ls-a.fr instead of opening an issue, in order to protect the security of other users.

Credits

• Renaud Berthier

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.