PDFPageFormatter

Prepares features for output to PDF by providing a convenient interface to set the scale and location of features on a page.

A single PDFPageFormatter transformer is intended to format one page of a PDF document. Using multiple PDFPageFormatter transformers will allow writing to the same PDF document.

Each input port is represented by one or more boxes on the page labelled with the port name. Features are scaled and centered preserving aspect ratio when they are placed in the appropriate box on the PDF page.

If more than one feature enters the same input port, the scaling and centering will be calculated based on the aggregate bounds of the input features. The features will be written to the PDF in the order they entered the input port.

The PDFPageFormatter affects the drawing order of features. Each box on the page will be completely drawn before drawing the next box. This overrides the Layer Order parameter of the PDF Writer. However, within each box, layer order will be preserved. Thus, if any features are routed through a PDFPageFormatter, then it is recommended to route all features through a PDFPageFormatter.

To remove an unused input port, delete its associated location box in the Edit Page Object dialog (right-click and select Delete). Alternatively, in the Workspace Navigator, double-click the Page Objects property of the transformer. In the Parameters dialog, select the input port and click the delete icon (—).

Configuration

Parameters

Page Layout

Page Size	Selecting one of the commonly used page sizes will populate the Page Width and Page Height parameters with the corresponding dimensions of the selected page in the currently selected unit.
Page Orientation	Specifies the orientation of the page. Switching between Portrait and Landscape will swap the values of Page Width and Page Height.
Page Width	The width of the PDF page to be produced. The unit of this value is specified in the Preferred Unit parameter.
Page Height	The height of the PDF page to be produced. The unit of this value is specified in the Preferred Unit parameter.

Page Object Properties

When editing the properties of any page object, the properties dialog offers the following options that apply specifically to this object and the subsequent frame to be created on the page in the resultant PDF.

Object Placement

Specifies the group of four parameters to define the extents of the page object in page units. These initially reflect the current values of the page object bounds and will resize the page object on the canvas if changed.

Upper Left X	The X coordinate of the upper left corner of the page object in page units. Changing these values will change the location of the page object on the canvas.
Upper Left Y	The Y coordinate of the upper left corner of the page object in page units. Changing these values will change the location of the page object on the canvas.
Width	The horizontal breadth of the page object in page units. Changing these values will resize the page object on the canvas.
Height	The vertical breadth of the page object in page units. Changing these values will resize the page object on the canvas.

Input Feature Processing

Maintain Aspect Ratio

The normal behavior of the transformer is to capture both the world bounds of the input features, the page bounds and the page object bounds to define the locations and size of the feature on the page. The default behavior is to scale the features in a uniform way in both X and Y dimensions, also known as maintaining the same aspect ratio or relative scaling for the height and width of each input feature geometry.

By default, the Maintain Aspect Ratio setting of Yes will use the minimum scale factor for x and y to fit the input feature geometry bounds into the page object bounds, maintaining the shape of the input feature geometries. Conversely, a value of No will scale x and y values independently to obtain a better fit of the input features into the page object bounds at the cost of potentially distorting their shape and location.

Clip Input Features

Features that extend beyond the bounds of the page object were previously clipped to the bounds of the object. This option allows input features to optionally be clipped or to extend beyond the page object boundary when rendered. The new default is No indicating that the input features will not be clipped to the page object boundary.

Note that in the default case the world rectangle is calculated using the bounds of the input features for this page object and thus when the input features are scaled to match the page object they should all fit inside. Exceptions may occur if the world rectangle is modified manually or if the bounds for the input features are not representative of the rendered geometry. This may occur specifically with text and multitext inputs which use only rough approximate bounds.

Editing Transformer Parameters

Using a set of menu options, transformer parameters can be assigned by referencing other elements in the workspace. More advanced functions, such as an advanced editor and an arithmetic editor, are also available in some transformers. To access a menu of these options, click beside the applicable parameter. For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.

Defining Values

There are several ways to define a value for use in a Transformer. The simplest is to simply type in a value or string, which can include functions of various types such as attribute references, math and string functions, and workspace parameters. There are a number of tools and shortcuts that can assist in constructing values, generally available from the drop-down context menu adjacent to the value field.

How to Set Parameter Values

Using the Text Editor

The Text Editor provides a convenient way to construct text strings (including regular expressions) from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and constants, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Text Editor

Using the Arithmetic Editor

The Arithmetic Editor provides a convenient way to construct math expressions from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and feature functions, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Arithmetic Editor

Conditional Values

Set values depending on one or more test conditions that either pass or fail.

Parameter Condition Definition Dialog

Content

Expressions and strings can include a number of functions, characters, parameters, and more.

When setting values - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors - strings and expressions containing String, Math, Date/Time or FME Feature Functions will have those functions evaluated. Therefore, the names of these functions (in the form @<function_name>) should not be used as literal string values.

Content Types

String Functions	These functions manipulate and format strings.
Special Characters	A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.
Math Functions	Math functions are available in both editors.
Date/Time Functions	Date and time functions are available in the Text Editor.
Math Operators	These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.
FME Feature Functions	These return primarily feature-specific values.
FME Parameters	FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Creating and Modifying User Parameters	Create your own editable parameters.

Dialog Options - Tables

Transformers with table-style parameters have additional tools for populating and manipulating values.

Table Tools

Row Reordering

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Add a row
Remove a row
Move current row up one
Move current row down one
Move current row to top
Move current row to bottom

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Cut a row - delete and copy to clipboard
Copy a row to the clipboard
Paste a row from the clipboard

Cut, copy, and paste may be used within a transformer, or between transformers.

Filter

Start typing a string, and the matrix will only display rows matching those characters. Searches all columns. This only affects the display of attributes within the transformer - it does not alter which attributes are output.

Import

Import populates the table with a set of new attributes read from a dataset. Specific application varies between transformers.

Reset/Refresh

Generally resets the table to its initial state, and may provide additional options to remove invalid entries. Behavior varies between transformers.

Note: Not all tools are available in all transformers.

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