Learning continues! Today I learned about Controller::cleanUpFields().

If you’ve used CakePHP’s scaffolding and are ready to create your own views you might run into a problem saving dates into your database.

Here’s the scenario:
You have a table with a datetime field in it. In your view you have a form that saves a date and the date field is create with the HTMLHelper:
$html->dateTimeOptionTag();

In your controller you have a simple Model::save() call to save your new record but low and behold your date is set to NULL.

Apparently CakePHP does not do a great job of automatically taking the selections that are created by dateTimeOptionTag() and converting them into a datetime string for the database.

Instead, before you call Model::save() you need to call Controller::cleanUpFields(); it will do some magic and give you a date string that the database likes.

This is a followup to my first post about importing multiple pages into PDFlib .
I have created a class that will allow you to import multi page PDF’s as well as importing multiple PDF documents into one generated PDF. It will also fill all of your PDFlib text blocks with the data you provide:

Please post any questions or comments about it.

Here’s the class on pastie: http://pastie.caboo.se/14052

Here’s the code:

# — HERE’S HOW TO USE THIS CLASS
# Created by Nate Constant, http://shabadeehoob.com . Please contact me if you need help using it
=begin
  1. open your PDF doc in Acrobat Standard (or Pro).
  2. using the PDFlib block tool draw your text blocks in your pdf where you want them
   a. if you are drawing blocks for checkboxes make sure to set the font to “ZapfDingbats” —IMPORTANT: dont use “Zapf Dingbats” <- see the space in there?
   b. if you are drawing blocks that are supposed to circle something (i.e. “circle your answer”) make sure to set the font size to something large to make the circle
  3. use the “Save As” to save your pdf into the directory you want (probably the directory in your rails app because you can access it via #{RAILS_ROOT})
  4. in this class go to the “fill_app”  method and set your “searchpath”. this is the path for your pdf doc in your rails app
  5. point your browser to the generate_pdf action and let er rip!
=end

class PdfDocsController < ApplicationController
  def generate_pdf
    @settings=Hash.new
    @settings[‘checkbox_type’] = “8″ # ZapfDingbats font number
    @settings[‘circlebox_type’] = “O”
    circle_type = “”
    @default_width = 612
    @default_height = 792
    @default_value = “n/a”
    @data = Hash.new(@default_value)

    @settings[“checkbox_type”] = “8″ #ZapfDingbats character number for checkbox
    @settings[“circle_type”]    = “O” #use this for circling answers

    # — NORMALLY YOU WOULD POPULATE THE @data INSTANCE VAR FROM A DATABASE OR SOMEWHERE ELSE
    @data[“male”]     = @settings[“checkbox_type”]
    @data[“name”]     = “Nate Constant”
    @data[“address”]  = “1234 some street”
    @data[“city”]     = “Denver”
    @data[“state”]    = “Colorado”

    send_data fill_app, :filename => “pdf_document.pdf”, :type => “application/pdf”,:disposition => “inline”
  end

  private
  def fill_app
    searchpath = “#{RAILS_ROOT}/my_pdfs”

    p = PDFlib.new
    if (p.begin_document(“”, “compatibility = 1.6″) == -1)
      logger.info “Error: “ + p.get_errmsg()
    end

    # Set the search path for fonts and PDF files
    p.set_parameter(“SearchPath”, searchpath)
    p.set_parameter(“pdiwarning”, “true”)
    p.set_info(“Creator”, “businesscard.rb”)
    p.set_info(“Author”, “Your Name”)
    p.set_info(“Title”, “The title of your PDF”)

    #IMPORT YOUR PDF YOU CREATED WITH THE PDF BLOCK TOOL
    import_file(p,“answer_pleading.pdf”) 

    p.end_document(“”)
    p.get_buffer()
  end
  def import_file(p,filename)
    blockcontainer = p.open_pdi(filename, “”, 0)
    if (blockcontainer == -1)
      logger.info “Error: “ + p.get_errmsg()
    end

    regularfont = p.load_font(“Helvetica”, “winansi”, “”)
    checkbox_font = p.load_font(“ZapfDingbats”,“builtin”,“”)
    #loop through all pages and put data in the blocks
    number_of_pages = p.get_pdi_value(“/Root/Pages/Count”,blockcontainer,-1,0)
    1.upto(number_of_pages){|page_num|

        #get current page
        page = p.open_pdi_page(blockcontainer, page_num, “”)
        if (page == -1)
          logger.info “Error: “ + p.get_errmsg()
        end

        #get all blocks for the page and put them in an array to use later
        num_of_blocks_on_page = p.get_pdi_value(“vdp/blockcount”,blockcontainer,page,0)
        cur_blocks =  Array.new
        0.upto(num_of_blocks_on_page-1){ |i|
          cur_blocks.push( p.get_pdi_parameter(“vdp/Blocks[#{i}]/Name”, blockcontainer, page, 0))
          #logger.info p.get_pdi_parameter(”vdp/Blocks[#{i}]/Name”, blockcontainer, page, 0)
        }
        width = p.get_pdi_value(“width”,blockcontainer,page,0)
        height = p.get_pdi_value(“height”,blockcontainer,page,0)
        #set page size
        p.begin_page_ext(@default_width, @default_height, “topdown”)
        # This will adjust the page size to the block container’s size.
        orient =  width>height ? “orientate west” : “”
        p.fit_pdi_page(page, 0, @default_height, “#{orient}“)

        # Fill all text blocks with dynamic data
        cur_blocks.each { |key, value|
          use_font = p.get_pdi_parameter(“vdp/Blocks/#{key}/fontname”, blockcontainer, page, 0)
          if use_font == “ZapfDingbats”#is this block a checkbox?
            font_string = “font #{checkbox_font.to_s} embedding encoding=builtin”
            @data[key] = “” if @data[key] == @default_value
          else
            font_string =“font #{regularfont.to_s} embedding encoding=winansi”
          end
          if (p.fill_textblock(page, key, @data[key].to_s,font_string) == -1)
            logger.info “Warning: “ + p.get_errmsg
          end
        }

        p.end_page_ext(“”)
        p.close_pdi_page(page)
    }#end looping through all of the pages
    p.close_pdi(blockcontainer)
  end
end

Update: Tony Buser has modified this code by making it into a hash object. View it here

I stumbled across this article that has about every CSS-based design layout you could possibly want and I thought I would share:

It has over 40 CSS-based layouts with code examples.