#Introduction

This framework can be used to replace the ous_print_server with a implementation in Groovy, redirection rules are configured using XML. There are some slides (in German) describing the framework. Documentation can be found on the project site.

• Convert ASC Files to XML
• Generate Parsers for generated slips
• Transform results of parsers to XSL-FO
• Printing of results
• Command line interface for conversions
• Automatic hot folder for slips that should be converted and printed
• Uses Apache Camel, you can also mail and print the results
• Generate XSL-FO files from ODF (Open / Libre Office)
• Extract ASC files from database definitions
• Convert plain text to PDF

This framework need just Java (Version 1.6 or higher) as runtime environment, to check out and compile you also need Git, Maven and a internet connection to resolve required artifacts.

##Terminology used in this document

• Artifact: A piece of self-contained software.
• Maven: A Java build tool like Ant or even Make, see 1.
• Maven site: A generated documentation which contains Groovy docs, reports and written documentation, need to be generated since it's not available in HTML format.
• XSL-FO: Extensible Stylesheet Language - Formatting Objects, a XML representation of print layouts, see 2.

This package provides two main artifacts that can be used:

• The command line interface (CLI) for manual conversions and printing as part of the "layout-cli" Maven module
• The Server component for watching folders for new slips as part of the "print-server" Maven module

Both include a command line documentation of their parameters, if you use the argument '-?' or '--help'. Refer either to this output or to the generates sites for a list of supported arguments.

You need the other Maven modules as dependencies in your local Maven Repository in order to build the main artifacts. Just follow the steps below.

Just run the following command to get a copy of the source code:

git clone https://github.com/subugoe/ous-print.git

Not all unit tests are passing yet, therefore you need the following to build all modules:

mvn -Dmaven.test.skip=true package

This readme file only provides a bird eye view over the framework, to get the whole picture generate the Maven site for this package (or just look at the project site). You just need to run the following command and look into ./target/site/index.html

There are also some slides (in German) that reflect the current state of this framework.

mvn site

The code is in production use at SUB Göttingen but might have still some rough edges. The ODF to XSL-FO part is untested, the Groovy parts are not finished yet. Some unit tests may fail. Not every possible transformation is implemented in Groovy (CLI), use the style sheets directly if needed. The SUB PrintServer doesn't reload it's configuration on changes yet.

• Make the Tests of the print-server module pass

This package provides a API documentation if you build the Maven site. For development Maven version 3 should be used, otherwise version 2 will work as well.

The following Maven Modules make up this framework:

• util - Utility functions used by several other modules
• layout - The core of this framework, contains the XSLT stylesheets and Groovy wrappers
• layout-cli - One of the main artifacts, a command line interface to work with the stylesheets, can convert and print
• layout-component - A Apache Camel component for the layout core, this way Camel can use the layout engine.
• print-server - A command line wrapper for Apache Camel, can act as a daemon to watch for and print slips
• layout-test - Contains test files for unit tests
• ous-db - Contains objects for OUS database access

The result of the layout process is determinate by XSL-FO files. Either use your own, change the provided one, or generate one using a ODF template. A description how to use ODF to create a XSL-FO file can be found in the Maven site.

Contributions are welcome, but since this code is in a working state, no support can be provided.

Issues and errors should be reported to the GitHub issues page of this project.