Rlib is a report writing engine that takes report specifications in an XML language. It emits reports in several formats including HTML and PDF.

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I stumbled across RLIB while figuring out how to implement some MS Access report writing features in PHP. MSA users will know what writing a report is, but PHP coders probably don't, so I'll explain.

This is a repository of "novice" articles, written with the intent of driving more traffic to the site, and getting more ad clicks. It's pretty crass, I know, but the information may be very useful.

Background

I've been spending the past day messing around with WordML to get it to generate Word files from PHP. The goal was to create printable tables. As George Bush said as the Iraq War slid toward failure: "Mission Accomplished."

My strategy was to start with a Word file, save it as xml, aka WordML, and then using the file as an xml template for the table layout. This is analogous to designing your output forms in NVU or Dreamweaver, and then turning it into a template.

Note that I saved the document out as an .xml file, not an .htm file. The .htm file could also be used as a template, but it doesn't retain all the Word features. There's also an alternate format, .htx, that is a MIME encoded .htm with enclosures, but the entire thing is MIME encoded, and decoding (and re-encoding) is a pain. XML is clean and relatively simple, and allows you to embed graphics.