Writing a Simple .NET Application

Using the Ultrascale .NET API is very easy. Below, the steps that must be followed in order to create a simple "Hello World" application are described.

Step 1: Creating a New Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Project

First, Visual Studio 2005 must be opened. Then, the user must access File > New > Project... and select Visual C# > Console Application.

Step 2: The Ecrion Ultrascale References must be added

ultra_references

To add a reference, the user must acccess Project > Add Reference... and select Ecrion.Ultrascale.NET from the list (as shown in the screenshot above).

Step 3: Type In The Code

The code listed below must be copied into the Program.cs file. Then, the F5 key must be pressed or the Debug > Run option selected. As a result, a PDF file named "HelloWorld.pdf" will be written in the user's C:\temp folder.

Note:

•	The user must make sure that the C:\temp folder exists and writing access is granted for the mentioned folder.

using System;

using System.IO;

using Ecrion.Ultrascale;

namespace HelloWorld

{

class Program

{

[STAThread]

static void Main(string[] args)

{

String outFilePath = @"C:\temp\HelloWorld.pdf";

FileStream outputStream = null;

try

{

//XSL-FO input

String xml = "<fo:root xmlns:fo='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format'>" +

"<fo:layout-master-set>" +

"<fo:simple-page-master master-name='all-pages'>" +

"<fo:region-body region-name='xsl-region-body' margin='0.7in'/>" +

"</fo:simple-page-master>" +

"</fo:layout-master-set>" +

"<fo:page-sequence master-reference='all-pages'>" +

"<fo:flow flow-name='xsl-region-body'>" +

"<fo:block>Hello World!</fo:block>" +

"</fo:flow>" +

"</fo:page-sequence>" +

"</fo:root>";

// Get bytes of string

byte[] stringBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml);

// Create input stream

Stream inputStream = new MemoryStream(stringBytes);

// Initialize data source

IDataSource input = new XmlDataSource(inputStream, Engine.InputFormat.XSLFO);

// Create output stream

outputStream = new FileStream(outFilePath, FileMode.Create);

// Create parameters for the rendering operation.

RenderingParameters param = new RenderingParameters();

// Set output format

param.OutputFormat = Engine.OutputFormat.PDF;

// Creates print ready documents using Ecrion XF Ultrascale engine

Engine engine = new Engine();

engine.Render(input, outputStream, param);

Console.WriteLine("Document rendered successfully!\n");

}

catch (Exception e)

{

// Report errors

Console.Out.WriteLine(e.Message);

if (e.InnerException != null)

Console.Out.WriteLine(e.InnerException.ToString());

// Close and delete the (partial) output file if any

if (outputStream != null)

{

outputStream.Close();

outputStream = null;

}

if (File.Exists(outFilePath))

File.Delete(outFilePath);

}

This concludes the "Hello World" example. More examples can be found in the Samples folder, that is present after installing XF Rendering Server 2013.

Below, a step by step explanation of the code is available.

Understanding the Code

The engine needs to be passed parameters via a RenderingParameters object. In this example, the most important parameter, which is the output format, is set.

// create parameters for the rendering operation

RenderingParameters param = new RenderingParameters();

// set output format

param.OutputFormat = Engine.OutputFormat.PDF;

The next step is creating the Engine object:

// create a new engine

Engine engine = new Engine();

Next, an input XSL-FO stream is needed. For this example, a MemoryStream constructed from a hard-coded string will be used.

Then, an XmlDataSource object will be utilized to pass it to the engine.

// XSL-FO input