Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks!
I am trying to add a link to the first element of:
\@{arrrayOref}
And at this part of my code it's where I generate a PDF file, I can not find any resources anywhere. I found the method for it, you can see it commented out in my code here. My hope is that some one had worked on something like that before and could show me how to use this method properly. Here is the code:
$pdftable->table(

     $pdf,
     $page->mediabox(792,612),
     
     \@{$array_ref},
     x => $left_edge_of_table,
     w => 495, # width of table
     start_y => 590, # top of page
     next_y  => 590, # top of all other pages
     start_h => 500, # rows per page
     next_h  => 500, # rows per page on all other pages
     # some optional params
     padding => 5,
     padding_right => 10,
     background_color_odd  => "gray",
     background_color_even => "lightblue", #cell background color for 
+even rows
     column_props   => $col_props,
     #cell_props     => $cell_props,
     #header_props   => $hdr_props, 
     
     new_page_func => sub {
     
                 #my $url = qq{ http://www.somewhere.com};
                 #my $annot = $pdf->annotation();
                #$annot->url($url,-rect =>[100,50,310,30],-border =>[1
+,1,1]);
                 
                 my $next_page = $pdf->page;
                 $next_page->mediabox(792,612);
                 #$next_page  = $pdf->annotation();
                 #$next_page->url($url,-rect =>[100,50,310,30],-border
+ =>[1,1,1]);
                 
                 
                 return $next_page;
        },
     # section HEADER
      

  );

 $pdf->saveas();

[download]

Thanks very much!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PDF, annotation method using Perl
by almut (Canon) on Apr 01, 2009 at 20:15 UTC

    I think you want 

        ...
    new_page_func => sub {
        my $url = qq{ http://www.somewhere.com};

        my $next_page = $pdf->page();
        $next_page->mediabox(792,612);

        my $annot = $next_page->annotation();  # an annotation is a co
+mponent of a page
        $annot->url($url,-rect =>[100,50,310,30],-border =>[1,1,1]);
    },
    ...

    [download]

    Don't know what you mean by \@{arrrayOref}  (\@{$array0ref} ?), though... Is that where the URL is supposed to be coming from?  If so, and if $array0ref is an array ref, maybe you want $url = $array0ref->[0] (which would assign its first element to $url).

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Here is a sample of what I am going nuts trying to do, I would like to have the first column "Content 1" to be a link.
      If I run with the code you mentioned here it will generate an error, I am still lost.

      #!/usr/bin/perl

use DBI;
use CGI qw(:standard);
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use strict;
use PDF::API2;
use PDF::API2::Annotation;
use PDF::Table;

 my $pdftable = new PDF::Table;
 my $pdf = new PDF::API2(-file => "M:\\pdf\\table-1.pdf");
    $pdf->preferences(
                       -thumbs => 1,
                 );

 my $page = $pdf->page;
    $page->gfx;
    $page->mediabox(792,612);

 # some data to layout
 my $some_data =[

    ["Header 1",
     "Header 2",
     "Header 3",
     "Header 4",
     "Header 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],

    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],
    
    ["Content 1",
     "Content 2",
     "Content 3",
     "Content 4",
     "Content 5"
     ],


 ];

my $left_edge_of_table = 50;


 # build the table layout

 $pdftable->table(
     # required params
     $pdf,
     $page,
     $some_data,
     x => $left_edge_of_table,
     w => 495,
     start_y => 750,
     next_y  => 700,
     start_h => 300,
     next_h  => 500,
     # some optional params
     padding => 5,
     padding_right => 10,
     background_color_odd  => "gray",
     background_color_even => "lightblue", #cell background color for 
+even rows

     new_page_func => sub {
        my $url = qq{ http://www.somewhere.com};

        my $next_page = $pdf->page();
        $next_page->mediabox(792,612);

        #my $annot = $next_page->annotation();  # an annotation is a c
+omponent of a page
        #$annot->url($url,-rect =>[100,50,310,30],-border =>[1,1,1]);
        #return $annot;
        return $next_page;
    },


  ),

 # do other stuff with $pdf
 $pdf->saveas();

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
        it will generate an error

        What is the error?  It works for me (if I uncomment the respective lines), i.e. it creates an annotation link to www.somewhere.com at the specified position on page 2.

        OTOH, as I'm reading your ...have the first column "Content 1" to be a link, you would like to have every cell of column 1 be a link to some URL (not just one link per page).  Unfortunately, PDF::Table does not make this easy. What you would want is a configurable callback/hook function that's being called when a cell is rendered, so you can easily get at its current coordinates, etc. As it is, there is no such thing...  But you could patch PDF/Table.pm like this 

                       }   # line 615

               ### insert this
               if (ref $arg{cell_render_hook} eq 'CODE') {    
                   $arg{cell_render_hook}->(
                                            $page,
                                            $rows_counter,
                                            $j,
                                            $cur_x,
                                            $cur_y-$row_h,
                                            $calc_column_widths->[$j],
                                            $row_h
                                           );    
               }
               ###

               $cur_x += $calc_column_widths->[$j];  # orig. line 616
       }#End of for(my $j....                        # orig. line 617

        [download]

        This would add a new option 'cell_render_hook', which you set to a function that gets called whenever a cell has been rendered. The function is being passed the following arguments: 

            page-obj,  row-index, column-index,  x, y, width, height

        [download]

        Your code would then look something like this: 

        use strict;
use PDF::API2;
use PDF::Table;

my $pdftable = new PDF::Table;
my $pdf = new PDF::API2(-file => "table-1.pdf");
   $pdf->preferences(
                      -thumbs => 1,
                );

sub newpage {
    my $page = $pdf->page;
    $page->mediabox(792,612);
    return $page;
}

my $page = newpage();

# some data to layout
my $some_data =[
   # same data as in your code... (not duplicated for brevity)
];


# build the table layout

$pdftable->table(
    # required params
    $pdf,
    $page,
    $some_data,
    x => 70,
    w => 650,
    start_y => 550,
    next_y  => 550,
    start_h => 500,
    next_h  => 500,
    # some optional params
    padding => 5,
    padding_right => 10,
    background_color_odd  => "gray",
    background_color_even => "lightblue", #cell background color for e
+ven rows

    new_page_func => \&newpage,  # as defined above

    cell_render_hook => sub {    # this is our newly introduced callba
+ck function
        my ($page,  $row, $col,  $x, $y, $w, $h) = @_;
        
        if ($col == 0) {  # do nothing except for first column
            my $url = "http://www.somewhere.com/my.php?row=$row";
            my $annot = $page->annotation();
            $annot->url(
                        $url,
                        -rect   => [$x, $y, $x+$w, $y+$h],
                        -border => [1,1,1]
                       );
        }
    },

 ),

# do other stuff with $pdf
$pdf->saveas();

        [download]

        which would produce this PDF.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Yes the \@{arrrayOref} is all the fields ( this table will have about 20 columns) from a db query I am doing, and only the first column-first element should be hyperlinked, or I could edit the value I want to assign to be a link from \@{arrrayOref} before it gets to "new_page_func => sub {".
      What do you think?
[reply]

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