Introduction #

Liferay has a "Reports" portlet, which is a full-fledged report application. It's cool!

Sometimes a client may ask for a PDF file for simple reporting purposes. This can be a small portlet using a ResourceURL. The ResourceURL is as specified in JSR-286.

This method uses iText for generating PDF's. The AGPL that governs iText does not allow its use for closed-source projects. Use Liferay's OpenOffice/LibreOffice integration for these type projects.

Environment #

• Liferay 5.1.2
• Tomcat 6.0
• MySQL

JSP Side #

<input type="button" value="Submit"
    onClick="location.href = '<portlet:resourceURL><portlet:param name="reportType" value="pdf" /></portlet:resourceURL>'" />

Portlet Java Code #

public void serveResource(ResourceRequest req, ResourceResponse res)
        throws PortletException, IOException {

        String rType = ParamUtil.getString(req, "reportType");
        
        HttpServletRequest request = PortalUtil.getHttpServletRequest(req);
        
        HttpSession session = request.getSession();
        
        ThemeDisplay themeDisplay = (ThemeDisplay)req.getAttribute(WebKeys.THEME_DISPLAY);
        
        Company company = themeDisplay.getCompany();
        
        if(rType != null && rType.equals("pdf")) {
        	
        	try {                
                    String msg = "Latest Weather Report";
                    
                    Document document = new Document();
                    
                    ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
                    
                    PdfWriter.getInstance(document, baos);
                    
                    document.open();
                    document.add(new Paragraph(msg));
                    document.add(Chunk.NEWLINE);
                    document.add(new Paragraph("It is a sunny day today."));
                    document.close();
                    
                    res.setContentType("application/pdf");
                    res.addProperty(HttpHeaders.CACHE_CONTROL, "max-age=3600, must-revalidate");
                    
                    res.setContentLength(baos.size());
                    
                    OutputStream out = res.getPortletOutputStream();
                    baos.writeTo(out);
                    
                    out.flush();
                    out.close();
        	} catch (Exception e2) {
                    e2.System.out.println("Error in " + getClass().getName() + "\n" + e2);
        	}
        }
        else {
            try {
                Workbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
                
                CreationHelper createHelper = wb.getCreationHelper();
                
                Sheet sheet = wb.createSheet("new sheet");

                Row row = sheet.createRow((short)0);
                Cell cell = row.createCell(0);
                cell.setCellValue(1);

                row.createCell(1).setCellValue(1.2);
                row.createCell(2).setCellValue(
                createHelper.createRichTextString("This is a string"));
                row.createCell(3).setCellValue(true);

                res.setContentType("application/vnd.ms-excel");
                res.addProperty(
                HttpHeaders.CACHE_CONTROL, "max-age=3600, must-revalidate");

                OutputStream out = res.getPortletOutputStream();
                wb.write(out);
                out.flush();
                out.close();
            } catch (Exception e) {
                System.out.println("Exception occurred ...");
            }
        }
}

Future Enhancement #

(1) Generate an Excel report